


Burning silk

by orphan_account



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Ice Wolf is the best puppy/sculptor around, Slow Burn, also biology is your jam, also you have some stress baking problem, and magic is neat, and thristy, gosh you are so SO salty, i love architecture so the embassy is beautiful, monster protagonist, multiple crushes, quite literally slow burn, tags will be added as the story goes, that may take a while, that owns their own pastry shop, there will be smut in the future, time to learn to be humble, you are a college student, you have a big family, you like to watch cartoons and eat cereals, your cousin can be a cool guy at times, your cousin is an ass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-05-22 19:40:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6091891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You want to go back to the underground, but the embassy will only let you go if they can have your psychological profile. As time goes, your counselor helps you see the reasons to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This is not my Home

You were perhaps one of the few monsters who were unhappy with the recent turn of events, and by unhappy you mean that you completely dislike the turn they took, and not just fleetingly feeling uncomfortable with the consequences that come with the whole situation.

You could remember the day before it all happened. One single child, just like many others who had fallen before, showed up one day in the ruins. You weren't yet born to see the ones before them, but you knew right away that that kid wasn't a monster like you, much less a spider monster. No fur, no scales, no magic, no fangs… And absolutely no idea of where they were. What else they could be, if not human?

You remember how they were wearing dirty clothes and how your web had caught on their hair, forcing you to weave yourself a new one after they left with a donut in hand. Your family was enchanted by such an intriguing being, and chatted excitedly before returning to bake more pastries.

You were but a child then, as well.

The events of that day, you hardly could guess, would be told for years and years, and change forever the path of monster kind. The very next day, you saw the world for the first time, and it's seemingly endless sky and scorching sunlight. Some liked to say that you had had a VIP treatment for that day, since you and your family left the underground inside a heated limo, secured from the cold of Snowdin, each with a new set of comfortable and fashionable MTT brand dancing shoes. You still had yours, too sentimental to throw them away after you outgrew your set.

You were received very well at first. That child - which for some reason you felt like you already knew, and that now you called by name: Frisk - became the ambassador of humans and monsters. They were barely older than you, and already had held such an important position.

Oh, what was life if not fair? Nothing much, to be honest.

You admit that you were a little bitter after knowing that the same kid that had messed up with your web, all dirty and without manners, was suddenly as important as the king and the queen of the Underground. That snotty brat.

Well, you considered them snotty  _ now _ , after you started to feel like you were on even ground in terms of knowledge and experience, having many years passed that you weren't kids anymore. Just knowing that you were on the same age group automatically made you feel like you knew more than them. Some days you were so full of yourself.... It was easy to recognize that flaw in yourself without much stress.

Today, however, is not one of those days.

Oh, no. Today you were just a miserable monster.

Carrying more books inside your bag than your back could handle, you stepped inside your family's bakery. Well, actually, you weren't sure if it could be considered a bakery, seeing how the humans' definition of a bakery were supposed to be so... Spider-free, so to say. The thought of non-spidery baked goods had disgusted you as a child and still did today. 

Your family's bakery was located on the floor level of a four-story building. You, with the help of the more well off members of the spiders' clan, had bought a nice house for you to live in with some of your closest relatives. The same fate was reserved for more than half of the spider monsters, of course. You were a blessed kind, as far as you knew. Oh, how you were lucky that your currency in the underground was all in gold. Yay, lucky you.

It was a pain to carry your things upstairs to the top floor. You held onto the walls with your extra arms to get some support and passed by the floors, hoping that your relatives were all either out or sleeping. No one in sight in the spider's household, you were ready to decree that your stealth mission was a success!

"Hey, baby, you home late."

Well, now that you thought a little more about it, your cousin didn't sleep much at night at all. The proof was the sight of him, right there in the common area of your floor, eating bagels and watching movies. Oh, stars, was he eating  _ your _ bagels?

Stealth mission status: failure, and about to become an assassination mission.

"Dude, what the fuck!", you curse under your breath, trying not to be too loud in the middle of the night.

"Heh.", he chuckled, biting into the- Oh it most certainly was your bagel now. You were the only one who filled the bagels with caramel in this house. "Expecting someone else, dude?"

"Turn on the light if you're awake, asshole.", you said, flipping the light switch on. Under the light, you could see it was not the first bagel he had eaten today, judging by the empty carton box you used at the store to store the pastries beside him.

"Nah.", she shrugged. "Mom was saying today that we had to save energy."

"How about saving it by turning off the tv at night, uh?", you dropped your bag on a corner in the room, relaxing your body into a more natural stance. "And going to sleep at normal hours?"

"Nah", he repeated.

There you have it. Your cousin, in all his smelly glory. Hooray!

You and your family liked to call him "Legs", an old nickname from when you were kids.

You were about to go to your room, but he called you again.

"Anyways, uncle Ernie wanted to talk to you."

You stop.

"He what?"

"He wanted to to talk to you about something."

Oh, stars…

"Don’t you know about what?"

"No idea.", he said, finishing his bagel. "Turn off the lights when you go to sleep, ok?", and he resumed watching his… Rom-com? Yup. Your cousin was watching cheesy rom-coms. Nope, you were not staying here to hear the amount of cheese it was going to spew.

Already wanting to keep your distance from all the corny lines in that movie, you flipped the lights off again and dragged your bag to your room.

You locked the door behind you, and put on some music to muffle your thoughts out. It may not actually block them off completely, but it calmed you down some.

Inside your bag, you had five books, the thick, hard covered kind. They smelled like they were moldering and needed a day under the sun ASAP. You put them away over your desk, beside another pile of books you had gotten from the public library.

For a spider monster's room, there was a severe lack of webs in your room. Unlike in the Underground, the wind brought with it's currents dust and dirt inside your house, which got stuck in the webs, to much of your dismay. Your nose was particularly sensitive to all that dirt, and clogged often. It was worse in the spring, when the flower's pollen made the air outside thicker with it's sweet particles. The first spring you spent on the surface, your family was driven to madness by your constant sneezing. No monster knew what was it you had, not even those who were old enough to have been there when monster kind had not yet been banished to the subterranean caverns. They pretty much had accepted that you were going to "fall", when Frisk did their job as an ambassador and explained to you that some people had allergies. Having lived your entire lives in the ruins, with barely anything to itch your noses, the concept was completely alien. Still didn't prevent them from getting worried sick over you every year.

And that was why your room was so…  _ Webless _ . 

Sigh.

You missed how they looked around your things. Thin, absurdly strong, shiny under the morning light...

You undressed and went to sleep, hiding your face under the many pillows and plushes on your bed. Even the fabric used on them had to be special, if you weren't wrong. It was all synthetic fibre and rubbery stuff. Those helped with your allergy, and you were more than thankful to your godmother for this gift. She had arranged those for you right after Frisk's revelation on allergies. Blessed be that woman.

Messing with your smartphone before bed, you had several messages from your one human friend. She was worried about you. Already having in mind the contents of her messages, you didn't even bother to read them. You closed the messages app and started to read a book online. You had to stop when your new book turned out to be one with a cheesy plot. You moved from book to book like this, reading a few paragraphs each and scrapping them from your files once you had figured out that you didn't feel up to reading any of them. Your three pairs of arms tangled around yourself, covering your face and hugging your middle. You stomach was still raging on you due to stress, and you just wished you had never left the underground.

The music was still going when you fell asleep.

\---------

Your family consists of people who are early birds. They started to wake up at 5 AM sharp, waaaaay too early for the sun to be up. You were going through the worse of winter, as the news promptly informed you when you sat down to have breakfast. Your younger brother had dragged you off your bed with the excitement on par to the day the barrier had been broken. His limbs were all over the place, searching the breakfast table for his daily dose of too much food to have in the morning. The little beast ate like a boss monster, much to your father's approval. He watched his son, satisfied, across the table. 

Your uncle and aunt joined you making tea, and you stepped back to give them room to take the task off your hands. You were happy to return to the table to fix something to stuff your stomach.

It was a shame that you got a sensitive stomach, which made you have an obnoxious nausea in the morning and made it hard to eat much this early. Your eight eyes moved to the clock. It was still too damn early. 

You had one or two family members who took a little longer to wake up, but in thirty minutes they were awake and ready to join you. All the spots on the dinner table were occupied by the arachnids, adding up in total to nine people: your uncle, your aunt, your two cousins, your older sister, your younger brother, your parents and you. The elders worked at the bakery downstairs, while the younger were either still studying or working somewhere else. Like you.

"What are you going to do today?", your father asked you while munching on his toast. 

Oh, right.

"Nothing much.", you evaded his question.

"Don't you have a lecture with that nasty teacher today?"

He was talking about this one racist professor at your university. He treated you less than gentlemanly, and decided to turn you into the butt to his jokes. Consistently.

"Nah.", you mumbled. "He got sick recently very suddenly. Like, really sick!", you said a teeny bit too  theatrically.

Liar.

You had caused his sickness. Not on purpose, you swear. How would you know he had no knowledge whatsoever on soul magic? The poor guy was too weak witted for you, and took a leave of absence after one little experiment you had in class. You almost felt sorry for him.  _ Almost _ .

Your father grimaced at you, all eight eyes squinting, sensing something wrong in your tone. You bit back a smile.

"Anyway...", he resumed eating breakfast. "I wanted you to go grocery shopping this time.", the elder monster sipped his steaming (spider)tea.

"It's Legs' turn this time, dad."

"I have stuff to do today.", he announced groggily. "Today's Nora's birthday. I'll make up for it next time."

"You better.", you grunted.

You ate the rest of your meal in silence, letting your family do the talking for you. Your remaining answers for the rest of the meal were all rather monosyllabic.

"Don't you think the butter is tasting a little rancid today?", your mother asked.

"Uhum."

"Can you get me the new toy on tv, sis?", your brother requested.

"Nah."

"Why not!?"

"'Cuz nah."

He looked like he was a match someone had just lit, ready to start a temper tantrum. He was so upset when you talked like that.

"Mom, she is doing the thing again!", he wailed to your mother.

"Wait until your birthday.", she sounded just as sleepy as you, dragging a long yawn after finishing her sentence.

"Do you think I'm a little thinner?", your aunt eyes, all of them, sparkled in anticipation for your answer.

"Yeah.", you thought she was actually chubbier than before, to be honest.

By the time the sun was threatening to rise, you were all done eating. Washing the dishes right after every meal was a thing that took some geting used to, you had to admit, but was a fairly easy and fast task to do when you have 3 pairs of hands each to do the job. Oh, boy, you loved multitasking more than anything.

You went upstairs again, to change and get your things. You got one book of your choice from the top of the pile from yesterday and shoved it into your bag, as well as your cellphone, charger, wallet and keys. It was still partially empty, and you hoped no one would notice the lack of books you were taking with you this time.

The shop downstair was about to open for the day when you left without saying goodbye. It was a little after 7 AM.

You were in a hurry to leave the streets as soon as you stepped outside. 

Today you were wearing a hoodie with only two sleeves, forcing you to hide two pairs of limbs under the fabric, glued to your sides. You pulled the hood over your head, which helped hide how many eyes you actually had. You didn't really care about showing your monster traits, but the bystanders thought differently.

Your feet started to drag you through the usual way to your university, but remembering something, your took a detour. Another thing you remembered: you couldn't really mingle in the crowd. Humans stared into your hood and whispered to their companions if they had any. Children were less discreet, and spoke out loud:

"Spider lady!"

"Don't stare.", and variations of those words flew around wherever you went.

You entered a monster pub downtown, and sat on a tall cushioned stool by the counter.

Pulling off your phone, you dialed the embassy. After only a few beeps, they picked up the call.

"Ebott's Embassy, how can I help you?", the gentle and suave voice over the phone was too cheerful, like they were repeating a phrase they had trained in front of the mirror.

"I would like to know at what times is the Embassy open today?"

"We are open all day from 8 AM to 6 PM, from monday to friday."

"Thank you, that was all I wanted to know."

"You are welcome. Have a nice day!"

"You too.", and you ended the call.

You climbed off your stool and strode out again, headed to the subway station. The guy selling the tickets gave you a nasty look, but sold you your tickets without voicing his thoughts.

The station was never too crowded at this time, and you were lucky enough to get yourself a seat away from the amorphous mass of people stuffing the inside of the vehicle. You were going down at the last station, the one closest to the Embassy. On the way, you spotted Aaron creeping on other people. You snickered when he grossed out an old Woshoa off his seat and into the furthest part of the wagon.

You arrived just before 9 AM. The sky was blocked out by a thick layer of dark gray clouds. The Embassy, a white and gold building, rose off the ground among a beautiful frozen garden. Even though the plants were covered by a thick layer of chaste white snow, someone went through the trouble of making ice sculptures, making it so all the covered beauty wouldn't be missed. There were glassy birds, monsters, humans and other smaller impressions, all very well crafted. You could see from where you stood a spectrum of colors dancing inside the ice like it was a prism, and recognized the use of ice magic. The snow around them glowed under the delicate filtered light and it's ever changing colors. The changes were so subtle, it was calming to watch as they went through the hue cycle your sensitive eyesight could detect. It seemed like some statues were still in the making. You crossed paths with Ice Wolf while he was working on one special piece, depicting the royal family. He caught sight of you on the corner of his eyes and nodded casually. You bobbed your head slightly in acknowledgement of his presence and stepped inside the building.

Monsters, as well as one single human, were going on about their businesses. The room was reminiscent of the royal castle, all beautifully decorated with a very detailed marble work with flower patterns and mosaic canvases constructed with the Underground's glowing rocks. If you could compare it to any art style, you'd say it looked a lot like a mix of byzantine and classic architecture, where the simple and elegant met with the colorful and rich. 

You loved the Embassy. Here, looking at it from the inside, you could say with complete certainty that it was the most beautiful thing monsters had built above ground. Caught up looking at the mosaic canvases covering most of the walls, each depicting a different location in the Underground, you kept walking deeper into the waiting hall. Your shoes made low splashing sounds as your wet soles met polished wooden floor. You recognized places you had only seen for a couple moments before leaving the cave: the Core and it's wires and frames, the Hotland, burning red and bright, the wonderful Waterfall and it's glowing plant life…

Your eyes found a mosaic of Snowdin, and, by it's side, the Ruins. While the one depicting the frozen land was decorated with shiny whites and greens, the Ruins were in deep royal purples and red. It made justice to your Home, showing it even more alluring than you remembered. It didn't bring to light what time had done to the place, how it had deteriorated through the centuries, but rather what it was like in it's golden years, when it was the capital of the Kingdom. 

Pulling down your hood to clear your vision, your entire attention was on it. You've never missed home as much as now, looking at how beautifully the artist had remembered your home. Your  _ Home _ !

"Good morning.", you were taken out of your reminiscent loving memories when someone gently called you. "How may I help you?"

The voice had come from none other than the prince of all monsters, Asriel Dreemurr.

You yelped, stepping back.

"Oh, my stars."

The prince - FUCK MY LIFE, ASRIEL FUCKING DREEMURR!? - chuckled at your surprise.

Everyone knew the history of the prince. His sacrifice, his falling… And no one will ever forget, for as long as memory exists and people write books, the day he had risen up from wherever he had fallen, growing back to life like golden flowers. You had never seen him, but you could recognize a boss monster anywhere - you remembered the queen Toriel very well, that wonderful woman who complimented your cooking as a child - and there was no mistaking. One of the last of the boss monsters, prince Asriel, wasn't a child for a while now. Just as tall as his father before him, he stood a good many feet above your height, all the while sporting those big, shiny as all the marble in the room, horns. 

And he smiled like his face was made for that motion. Each particle of magic that made up his body existed for the sake of that smile, and you couldn't find the words to respond. Instead, your many eyes searched his figure, madly looking for something to say.

"I hope I didn't scare you...", he begun saying with a concerned tone, and only then you found your voice again.

"No! Your Highness would never!", your extra arms under your clothes were fidgeting.

"Oh", he seemed very pleased by your revelation, and his smile shone brightly again. Such white teeth! "I'm so glad! I thought I had. I hope I'm not bothering you…?"

"I was just admiring your canvas, Your Highness...", you blurted out nervously

He rose his palm to stop you from continuing talking.

"Please.", even his eyes smiled when he talked. "Call me Asriel."

"Of course.", you squeaked.

"Now, now, what brings such a charming lady like you here today?"

Oh, my stars…

He… Did the prince just call you a charming lady? You thought you were looking rather like a trash bag with your old hoodie and torn jeans. Magic began wandering to your face and a blue blush filled your vision. You felt like a deer under the spot light.

"I-I - Ah - Uhnn...", you were the queen of articulation. That was you. Of course!

Someone must have thought so too, because they strode towards you and the _everloving freaking_ _prince of all monsters_ \- you were having strong nationalist feelings over knowing _you_ had the most good looking royal of _all the world_ as your prince regent - and casually gave the prince a pat on the back.

"Flirting this early, Azzy?", they, you recognized, were a human, plain and simple. Long hair tied up behind their head and wearing a suit, you felt like you should know them, but couldn't put your finger on their name.

"Wha- I'm not flirting!", Asriel was quick to defend himself, smiling awkwardly.

"I'm not complaining.", then they turned their attention to you. "Good morning, miss, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything.", they wiggled their brows slightly when speaking to you. 

The human was very tall, but not nearly as tall as the prince. You were short for most monsters, but perhaps taller than the average human. This one, however, surpassed your height by about an inch or two.

"Frisk!", Asriel pulled their shoulder playfully. 

What?

Upon hearing that name, you grimaced. So that's what puberty had done to that snotty brat, you wondered, taking a good look at the human in front of you. 

"Oh.", your tone flattened, unable to still sound excited after remembering that one time they had messed with your web. "Good morning, Frisk. It's been a while."

Recognition colored their expression, and they straightened their back. There was some satisfaction in the fact that they remembered having seen you when you were kids. Bless their good memory.

"Oh, my God, I almost didn't recognize you!", they confessed. "It's been so long, you're almost like someone else!"

"You changed a lot too. Got taller.", you snickered, feeling satisfied with yourself for still feeling like you were taller than them. What was height to someone who had a sharper mind?

"You think so?", their enthusiasm seemed genuine, like they hadn't sensed the mock in your words. Their eyes darted to Asriel and back to you, very fast. "Think I might get taller than Azzy in a couple years."

"Ha!", the prince bleated. "Sure! Maybe one day, Frisk.", he said sarcastically.

They laughed amiably, pushing each other playfully. 

"Won't you introduce me to your friend, Frisk?", he says, then turns to you. "I don't think we have met before."

Something funny happened to you: You felt odd, like that couldn't be right. Having never seen him before like this, there's no way you met before. Even so, the feeling that something wasn't right didn't leave you.

"Sure!", Frisk directed his palm towards you, presenting you. "Asriel, this is Rose. Her family owns that spider bakery on South Ebott. Rose, you've met Asriel."

The goat lad looked at you quizzically. 

"Are you by any chance Mr. Ernie and Mrs. Clarice's daugther?", the monster inquired.

"Yeah. How do you know my parents?"

"Frisk here always orders from their shop.", he pointed to the human with his thumb.

"Oh.", and there you were, feeling full of yourself. "Do you also like our pastries, Your Highness?"

"Yeah, I do, but just when Frisk remembers to leave some for me.", the culprit by his side chuckled nervously. "I think we may still have some spider tea, though."

"Anyway...", you brushed the ends of your hair with your right free hand. "I have some stuff I would like to arrange today."

"Of course.", Asriel cleared his throat. "How can we help you today?"

"Oh.", your hand gets tangled in your thick black hair, and you take a moment to untangle it. "It's a minor issue, I'm sure you have other more important things to do. I don't want to bother."

"None that can't wait a little while.", the boss monster said, and was awarded with a very indiscrete glare from the Ambassador. "What is it?"

You really hoped to not sound as ingrate as you felt when you voiced your issue. You expected to have to deal with someone else - perhaps the receptionist by the counter just a few meters away? - and not have to tell the prince himself of your problems. Suddenly feeling very shy, you refused to look at him in the eyes, deciding the wooden patterns on the floor were much more interesting that the alternative.

"Ern… May we talk somewhere else?"

"Of course!", not really sure if it was entirely necessary to move but not wanting to be rude, Asriel led you to a vacant office. Frisk came along.

As you entered the office, you could see a desk covered by loose sheets of paper, as well as many fountain pens. At the center of the room the was a small tea table and four armchairs. Just like the waiting hall, his office was very broad and had a very high ceiling. The window frames alone were higher than any door you've ever seen outside of the Embassy, inviting in a generous portion of the sunlight. There was a fireplace built between two windows, within which you noticed the lack of fire wood despite it burning flame, and recognized the boss monster's magic. Toriel was known for her use of this specific kind of magic, so it didn't come as a shock to you to see it exposed here. Knowing for a fact that a boss monster's magic couldn't burn you or anyone if it was not it's intent, you had a very strong urge to stick your hand in there. 

"So?", he sat down on the armchair closest to the fireplace, and got himself comfortable. Frisk sat on the one nearest by his side. They immediately started fixing themselves a cup of tea. You noticed it was spider tea.

"Well...", you moved away from the fire and decided to sit across from Asriel, the tea table keeping your knees apart. "I don't want to be rude.", you gestured with your free hands, and the ones remaining under your hoodie fidgeted, grabbing the soft flesh of your belly fiercely.

You stressed your lower lip under your fangs.

"I would like to move back to the Underground, Your Highness."

They both simultaneously chocked on their tea.

Was it rude to find their reaction amusing? You had no idea, but the sight of two most important personalities of today's politics scenario choking and losing their composure urged a laugh you had to bite back to keep a straight face. Oh, no, there was a smile pulling at the corner of your mouth upwards. 

"Sor- Ack - Sorry.", Frisk pat their chest, trying to get the air to go through the right canal. Asriel was in much worse shape, coughing loudly. "Would you like to take vacations there? Is that what you meant?", they tried, visibly uncomfortable.

"It's ok. And I mean, no, I would like to move there permanently", you, despite finding it absurdly amusing how bent out of shape they were right now, were a little concerned over them and their impression of you. " Is it too weird of me?"

"No, actually", the goat monster coughed one last time before clearing his throat. ", We have some paper on that to sign today for other monsters.", Asriel confessed. "I just, I don't know, wasn't expecting  _ you _ to want to move back."

"Why not?"

"Well, I was under the impression that things were going well with your family.", he explained, bashfully.

"Yeah!", Frisk agreed. " Your parents mentioned business has never been better! Your neighborhood looks nice, and, and...", they scratched their head in confusion. "Is there anything we missed? Have any of you been having any kind of issue we didn't notice?"

They seemed utterly distraught over your wish to leave the surface, and you couldn't help but feel bad for them.

"Kinda...", your stomach protested, and you were engulfed by a wave of anxiety. "I-I mean… I just don't think this is where I should be."

"Has anything been bothering you?", Asriel pressured you to continue. "If you need us to, it's the Embassy's job to help sort out every kind of problem for monsters fitting in the surface."

"You can't fix this.", you cut him. "It's not like you can fix every single problem!", your voice rose an octave, the tension in your guts doing things to your tone. "...Your Highness.", you quickly amended, dreading to be disrespectful towards the prince.

They shared a look among themselves, both in equal parts confused and anxious.

"It's in the Embassy's nature to help everyone we possibly can.", Frisk reassured you. "Won't you tell us what's wrong so we can help?"

Rejecting completely the option of answering his question, your tried to think of something to distract them, your mind racing faster than light. You opened you mouth many times, as if you were about to say something, but almost immediately closed it. You repeated the process, all the while being unable to contain your fingertips from digging into your palms, until they understood how much you didn't want to talk about it.

"If you don't need our help, it's fine.", Frisk reassured you. "But I have to suggest that you talk to one of our counselors."

"Ah?", counselors? You didn't know they had  _ counselors _ .

"Most of the time it's not really necessary, but better be safe than sorry.", the prince shrugged. "Living on the surface can be really tough, so we recommend everyone who wants to move back to see one for a trial time before actually moving."

"Oh. Er, sure? I guess. For how long?"

“It usually takes a month for the counselor to give us an input, but you are free to close the sessions whenever you want.”

You tried not to grimace at the idea of staying in the surface any longer than you were already going to. 

"Asriel."

"On it!", he said as he stood up and started looking through his desk's drawers. He seemed to have found what he was looking for and came back to his position across from you. He handed you a paper sheet on a clip board and one of the fountain pens you saw before. "Would you please fill in the blanks so we can assign someone for you?"

It was an application form. Where you were supposed to write down your residence's phone number you crossed out twice. You wrote down everything else.

"Thanks.", the other monster said when you handed it all back to him. " We'll see who is available to see you." 

"I'm like, whatever on this.", you cracked your knuckles, absent minded. "Send me anyone."

The next moment there was someone knocking by the door. The three of your turned to see Ice Wolf stomp into the room.

"Hey, Kiddo!", his tail was wagging madly. "I'm done with the garden, come check it out!"

At that, you were dragged outside by the monster - he was very strong from all that heavy sculpture work he did, damn! - to the garden. Your jaw dropped slightly when you saw what he had done to the place. Sure, it was stunning when you came around earlier, but you didn't expect him to use more magic to enhance the ice sculptures even further. 

The were still colorful like prisms under the gentle sunlight, but now they could be mistaken for being alive. Without stepping off their spots, the sculptures moved on their own, as if the wind was blowing their hair and clothes. Small gestures, like moving their members a little or changing expressions brought a strong sense of life into the creations. The one sculpture he was was working on when you came, of the royal family, was specially stunning. The king and queen were poised proudly next to the prince and a human child. Their mouths moved as if they were laughing, though they made no sound. The children had one arm each wrapped over each other's shoulders and swayed their bodies to the sides gently. It was a little uncomfortable to see an ice sculpture move, specially when the real deal was right by your side, but it was lovely nonetheless.

Glancing between both of them, you decided that Ice Wolf did a good job bringing out the prince's smile. The ice sharp fangs matched perfectly the real thing.

"Gotta say...", Frisk was just as mesmerized as you. "You really outperformed yourself this year."

As happy a little puppy with a new toy, the wolf monster could barely contain himself. He knocked Frisk to the ground in a firm hug. Asriel let out a full laughter at them, a very contagious one at that because you didn't even notice when you started laughing too.

"I guess you found yourself in a...", the prince begun to say, full or mirth.

"Asriel!", the poor ambassador could barely breath under the wolf, the wind knocked out of their lungs.

"... In a _hairy_ _situation_!"

"FOR GOD'S SAKE, ASRIEL!", they groaned loudly at the awful pun.

"Come ooooon, Frisk!", 

"Yeah, Frisk.", you snickered, coming up with another pun yourself. "Don't give Ice Wolf the  _ cold shoulder _ ."

The prince was absolutely delighted by your collaboration, and raised his palm to you, requesting a high five, which you were no less than in ecstasy to return. All the while, Ice Wolf refused to let go of the human, who was groaning even louder than before.

"That's it, I'm disowning you."

"Shush, Frisk, you love it."

"Just… Help me get up."

"I think I should go, guys.", you said. "Unless I need to do anything else?", you simultaneously raised two eyebrows at them.

"I think that's it.", Frisk answered while Asriel tried to pry Ice Wolf away from them on the ground. "We'll call you."

"Oh, I hope so.", you said dreamingly under your breath, ogling how the prince's muscles tensed under his clothes with the effort he was making.

"What did you say?", the human must have heard you, because now it was their turn to raise an eyebrow your way.

"I said see you soon!", you turned on your heels and strode away from them, face as blue as an emu's egg.

A while later, you still had a silly smile glued to your face when you took the subway.


	2. at Grilby's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You meet your counselor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to rewrite that damn thing so many times... On to the next now.
> 
> You can find me at http://thespidermonster.tumblr.com/
> 
> Art corner:
> 
> I drew Rose: http://artanddetermination.tumblr.com/post/139755240707/aaaaaand-ive-created-a-fan-monster-her-name-is
> 
> How it probably looked like when she saw Asriel: http://artanddetermination.tumblr.com/post/140590405067/askthespidermonster-school-sketches-of-my-bb

The way back is a lot worse. The subway is stuffed to the ceiling, and you have to struggle to find a spot where you can get more or less comfortable. At some point, you swear you smell someone smoking, masked under the smell of sweat and grease, and there is nothing you want more than to shove that person out through the window and watch them roll behind the wagon. That, however, is just a nice thought: you wouldn’t actually do it. You put on your earbuds and turn on the volume to the max.

Lost in thought, you realize you were probably a little too addicted to baking, because your hands were itching to roll some dough and they fidget, missing the feeling of mashing and mixing food. Wanting to have something to do with your hands, you cracked your knuckles, one by one.

It was a relief when the doors opened at your station, and you let yourself be carried by the amorphous mass of people, out of the station and up the stairs. The frigid air hit your face and you hid further into your hoodie. Should've wore more layers before leaving this morning, you thought.

It was still early, but not early enough you couldn't have some brunch. Your feet dragged you inside the first shop you passed by, which happened to be a café. It was noticebly warmer inside, and you could feel your soul waver under the soothing smell of melting cheese and tea. The poor clerk behind the counter almost had an heart attack when she saw you and your multiple eyes and fangs, and couldn't move for the first few seconds after she spotted you.

"I would like a blueberry muffin, please.", you took your pick in front of her, eyeing the exposed goods.

When she didn't show any sign of having heard you, or any reaction but to stare, you cleared your throat loudly.

" _ Miss _ . A blueberry muffin.", you repeated slowly, and the clerk seemed to snap out of it.

"Right away!", she hadn't said it as much as she had squeaked like a tiny mouse being chased by a cat, and got you your muffin from the glass case. She handed it to you and you stuck your hand in your pocket to grab a few stray dollar bills.

Seeing how nervous she was geting in your presence, you smirked, struck by a mean idea.

"Boo!", you suddenly spooked her, showing off your fangs, leaning over the counter and slaming a hand with the money over it. She flinched and shrieked.

You cackled on her face as she teared up and whimpered. Patrons were staring at the scene and you decided to eat your muffin somewhere else before anyone came in defense of the girl you bullied.

You took your refuge not far from there, at the public library, breaking people's concentration wherever you went, and not for the best reasons. Humans prone to fear spiders - what a silly fear, really, you were shocked when you first heard of it - portraied unexpected reactions. Some squirmed, some groaned, some were more discrete and left silently. You prefered when they acted as the latter, no matter how funny it was to mess with the former, like the girl in the café. Today, there were no arachnophobics at the library, so you could chose a book at your leisure and find a corner for yourself in peace. The floor was carpeted and very clean, almost like it was brand new. Taking your pick of the shelves, you sat down to read a book about immunology, at the photography section. You kicked out your shoes and rubbed the soles of your sore feet against the velvety surface: it felt like heaven after such a long ride on the subway, where people constantly stomped on your feet. Everything smelled like cleaning products and resin, and you fixed your earbuds to listen to some louder music. Your favorite songs helped you lose yourself into your reading and time became irrelevant as you couldn't say for how long you were there, devouring the contents of that piece of literature. By the time you were hungry - like _hungry_ hungry and not _book-worm_ -hungry - it was in the middle of the afternoon, and you had read a few hundred pages, reaching the chapter where the author starts to get deeper into immunochemistry. You were almost falling back into your reading, trying to ignore the hunger, when your stomach complained loudly and commanded you to get off your ass and go back home, where food was.

You returned the book to where you'd found it and left the library.

Home was half an hour walk away, but you were so used to going back and forth that you didn't even notice when you arrived. You protected your face from the cold by lifting the neck of our hoodie over it, effectively shielding up to your nose. It was so dry outside, the sky was a perfect blue, clear without any indication of snow falling today, perfect for staying home with a cup of hot spider tea. Your belly rumbled at the thought, and you quickened your pace. Upon arriving, you entered through the threshold, the door bell chimed, and you cleaned the soles of your shoes on the doormat. Your older sister was working at the cashier and silently winked at you before attending the costumer in front of her. You passed by the kitchen to grab one of your mother's bagels in the refrigerator and went upstairs. You had this subtle feeling that you were forgeting something important, but brushed it off and headed to the bathroom.

You had just undressed and stepped into the bathtub brimming of hot water when you heard your aunt arriving with your cousins and your brother back from school, downstairs. They ran around and made loud banging noises wherever they went, loud enough you could tell when they were home and when they weren't. The house was awfully silent and so much less fun without them around. You could hear their voices and shouts so well, even though you were so many floor above the ground floor - you just paid a lot of attention to background noise when you were windind down and relaxing - you could distinguish their pubescent voices perfectly. All was peace and quiet except for it, when suddenly a feminine shriek added to the noise. Someone started stomping up the stairs, effectively causing vibrations to go through the masonry of the house. A sense of dread went down your spine when you recognized your name among the shrieks.

"Oh, stars...", you sighed. Not right now. You were liking your bath so much...

"ROSE!", it hadn't taken her much long to find you in the bath. Your aunt entered the bathroom and closed the door with a bang behind her. She looked like she had been hit by a train by how distressed she was. "Where! Are! The groceries!"

And it hit you just like the methaphorical train: you remembered you had been asked to do the grocery shopping by your father this morning, while you were having breakfast. You brushed your wet hair away from your face and grimaced.

"Stars! Sorry! I forgot!", you gripped the borders of the bathtub, suddenly feeling like all magic had vanished from your face. Surely if anyone punched you right now, you'd turn into dust.

"What're we gonna do, what're we gonna do!", your aunt turned on her heels to frown at you, flailing all her arms around. "It's your fault!", and she stormed out, leaving you to stress the fuck out.

The nearest place where you could buy ingredients for monster food was accross the city. There was competition over the limited resources, and they were sold out pretty early in the day thanks to the absurdly high demand. Without them - and you needed to buy most of what they had in stock or else you wouldn't have enough to supply your bakery - you wouldn't have anything to sell for the whole week. By the time you got dressed, drove to the market and found the seller, there wouldn't be anything left. You wanted to hit your head against the wall or something. Maybe if you got seriously hurt your family wouldn't want to skin you alive as soon as you got out of your bath.

You took a lot longer to come out than you needed, letting the water soak you in like it could wash away your mistakes as you prapared yourself mentally for what was waiting for you outside. They'd be mad since they'd have to sell only leftovers tomorrow, bread already geting hard as the freshness was nowhere to be seen anymore. No one wants old bread.

You realise it shouldn't be that big of an issue, and that you could use human ingredients for today, but every coin counted for you family, and non-magic groceries took a heavy tool into your savings. Education was expensive. Your bills were always overwhelming and barely affordable. You couldn't help but feel the contents of your stomach threatening to say hello again at the idea of having caused the whole situation upon your family. You weren't poor, but the price of being a monster in the surface was unfairly high for your kind. 

There's nothing you could do anymore. The deed was done: you'd have to deal with it somehow, so you convinced yourself to get up and put on the bath robe while you still had the courage to, instead of pretend you had died and lay in the bathtub until you turn into dust. Which... may take a while...

Maybe your family would accept the innevitability of your situation and not take it too hard on you...? It could've happened to any of you!

You held onto that little hope and went to your room to get dressed. Put on an old sweater and jeans, you were ready to head downstairs and confront whatever was in store for you, literally. Face your family. Be brave!

"Rosey! Are you up there?!", you heard your mother call from the botton of the stairs one or two floors below. There was a threatening spike in her voice, and you were immediately transported to when you were a kid, when she used that tone when lecturing you, which you've never walked away from without crying your eyes out.

Hnn, nope. Not today.

You closed the door to your room, grabbed your cellphone and put on a jacket and boots from your closet before heading to the window frame. You glued the end of your spider silk to the floor and climbed it down the window, the cold breeze almost froze your fingers as you weaved your way down.

You heard very clearly when your mother got to your room, banging the door against the wall. She called you once, twice, then might have seen your silk, because she leant against the window frame, looking for you, and frowned, her head popping out above you.

"GET BACK UP HERE!", she shouted and you squeaked, weaving faster.

You were almost all the way down when your silk snapped. You screamed and fell into a pile of snow in front of the shop.

"Ugh.", you shook the ice off your limbs. Blessed be your lazyness to shovel the snow off the way. That darn thing had broken your fall and prevented you from getting badly hurt. You think you scrapped your knees, but other than that you are feeling perfectly fine.

One more shout from inside your house and you remembered you didn't want to be there when they got out, so you were gone and running to the next block before your mother even opened the front door.

  
  


xxxxxxxxxx

  
  


The sun was setting now, painting the sky various shades of purple and orange. The cold was becoming a little too much to handle with just your jacket and a sweater, so your teeth were clicking together and you were shivering. You made a phone booth a dozen blocks away from your street into your refuge from the harsh weather. You were glad the streets were fairly desert, and that no one would have to see how you looked like right now, hair damp and messy, geting everywhere and you breaking a disgusting sweat. Your jacket was slipping off your shoulders, and you fixed it, properly covering yourself.

Where could you even go right now?, you thought while looking at your feet and hugging your sides to conserve warmth, when your phone buzzed furiously inside your pocket. You pulled it out and there were missed calls and messages bombarding you. Your father had tried to contact your through your message app, asking where you were, if you were ok, what had happened… Your mother, however, sent one text talking about how worried she was and another about how much trouble you were in right now.

The screen turned black and flashed your mother's number. You declined the call in mild panic.

You started writting back to her.

_ "Im sorry ill be back by dinner" _

_ "pls dont be mad" _

_ Sad face _

You didn't read what she wrote you back, but didn't want to anyway. In the following moments you counted 20 messages arriving just from her.

The screen turned black again with an incoming call. You were about to decline it, thinking it was her again, but held your finger as the number that showed up was an unfamiliar one, not even added to your contacts. You picked it up.

"Hello?", you muttered.

" _ Howdy! It's me, Asriel! _ "

You almost dropped your phone in surprise.

"Your Highness!", you couldn't not be pleased to hear his voice. "Good evening!", he chuckled through the line at your enthusiasm and your heart hammered inside your ribcage. "How may I help you?"

" _ Well, it's me who wants to help you, actually _ !", he corrected. "  _ It's about your counselor. We found one whose schedule matches yours, and I wanted to know if you're free to meet him? _ "

And have a warm place to sit down and wait for your family to stop hunting your ass down? Sign you the fuck up! 

"Sure! Can I see him today?"

" _ Of course! He should be free right now. Do you have a pen and paper? I'll give you his address. _ "

"Yeah, sure!", you had no paper or pen, but your memory would have to sufice.

He told you slowly, correcting you when you mispelled it. You repeated the address twice to make sure you got it right.

"Thanks."

" _ His papers saaay… That he will be there until around 8 pm _ .", he said, taking a pause to look through his info for you.

"Yeah, I'll go see him.", then you glanced around. "I think I know where that is. Thanks again. Bye"

" _ Have a good evening _ .", he bid his farewell cheerfully and you ended the call. You wrote down the address on your phone right after.

It didn't take you long to find this guy's place. You hadn't expected, however, that the address would point you to the same monster pub you had dropped by in the morning. It was a good coincidence, since it meant you didn't get lost looking for it, but it was still unexpected. You approached the establishment and noticed the big "closed" plate hanging on the door and no costumers to be seen inside through the windows. You checked the address again, and that was definitely the place. Giving the door an experimental push, it creaked open.

Now, tresspassing wasn't on your list of things to do today, or any day, but the premisse of freezing your butt outside in the cold winter night wasn't very inviting, so you decided to puff your chest, raise your shin and go in like you owned the place instead. If you got to commit a crime, you got to do it with your head held high!

You entered the monster pub like you walked into your own home: recognizing scratches and stains on the floor as if it had been you who caused them. It, however, was not your home. The pub was devoid of patrons, occupied instead by absolute silence. There were pictures on the walls, much like in the Embassy, and you recognized random locations in the background, behind groups of monsters with bright smiles and carrying baggages. You wonder if those pictures were from the day the barrier was broken. Some definitely weren't, far too faded and dusty to have been taken that recently. 

There was only one person there: the barista, a fire elemental, cleaning the top of the wooden counter with a rag. His flames danced up where his clothes didn't cover his skin, swaying along with his every move. Under the fire, you could tell he had a very conscistent body: it was like a vibrating core of solid light, brighter inside than along the tail of the flames, but not necessarily burning your eyesight. It was like he was a walking ember, crackling and poping, but never burning out. You must have stared for too long, because he noticed you were there and nodded, aknowledging your presence. He then let go of the rag and walked around the counter, towards you.

You said before that you weren't very tall for most monsters and that applied to this particular one too. When he stopped in front of you, he stood about a head and half taller, without counting in the extra height he got from the fire. His clothes looked like they were freshly ironed, without a single wrinkle on them. You found yourself wondering if it had anything to do with his body heating up the fabric and instantly decimating whatever fold that attempted to wrinkle his vests.

When he spoke, his voice was deep as thunder, filling the stablishment with a low rumble. It was like it was everywhere, and it brought out his height, giving off the impression that he was even taller.

"Good evening.", the flames covered his mouth in a way you could barely see when his lips moved. "Are you Rose, perhaps?"

"Uh… Yeah.", you hid a little deeper into your jacket like it was your armor. Strangers knowing your name always made you feel weird.

"I'm Grillby, the embassy's counselor.", and held out his hand to greet you.

When you shook his hand, his naturally warmer body heat washed away whatever reminescing cold you still felt on your palm, like he was a living heat pack. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Equally.", you muttered.

His presence was overwhelming. Nothing claimed attention more than fire, and having him there was almost too much. You couldn't stop looking at him now that he was up close. You forced yourself to let go of his hand and he gestured for you to sit. You walked to the stool in front of the counter and he walked behind the cashier. He picked a glass on the shelf and turned back to you.

"Would you like to have something?"

"No, thanks, I forgot my wallet at home.", you shruged. There had been no time to pick up stuff like that when you left.

"Today it's on the house.", he said as his body crackled like scorching wood.

"In that case, I would like something warm."

He then picked up a gross and round bottle from one of the higher shelves and poured it into your cup, alongside with something else he got from a refrigerator. The mixture seemed to boil together in front of you and changed colors, gaining a bright orange shade.

"What is it?"

"Hot chocolate."

"What else?", you looked over the liquid. The cup was starting to warm up, the heat seeping into your palm.

"Cognac."

"Human cognac?.", you looked away from your drink and raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's a monster recipe.", he explained. "Try it."

You gingerly sipped the drink, and had to agree: it was definitely a monster drink. Human food usually took longer to absorb and diggest, but this one melted into magic on your tongue right away. You couldn't put your finger on the kind of magic that was on that drink, but it coursed through your body like a wave, heating your extremities like nothing else and shining brigtly through your veins. You could see it's glow completely visible while traveling along your skin and you sighed, enjoying it's effect on you. You took another sip.

"That's really good.", you hummed aprovingly before taking a long gulp.

Monster liquor wasn't that different from human's. You were starting to feel a little "happier" now, relaxing on your stool and easing your elbows over the wooden surface of the counter. 

"I'm happy to hear.", as he spoke, his fire burned a little brighter, lighting the room further.

"So...", you begun, still with a gentle orange glow on you. " How does this whole counseling thing goes, usually?", you felt a tingle go down your spine, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Niiiiiice.

"We can meet whenever you want, as long as it's on my free hours."

You only heard the ‘whenever you want’ part, and the liquor twisted his words into a sweeter, more desirable tone. You looked at him through half lidded eyes.

"When are those?", you slurred, and it sounded like it was only one word: "whennadose".

"From 2 pm to 8 pm."

"Everyday?",

He nodded.

"What do you think about friday around 4 pm?", you suggested.

"Of course."

"Then it's settled.", you smiled lazily. "Now.", you raised your glass to him. "Would you please fill my cup again?"

Expression as unreadable as a mask, he did so in an instant and the colors burned to light once again inside your cup. You downed your drink in one go this time, then pushed the cup back to him. 

"Thanks.", you sighed happily, and the magic numbed your tongue.

"You're welcome."

Maybe it was the drink making you feel a little less awkward next to the stranger, but despite feeling as sober as before you relaxed into a friendlier state, glanced at Grillby and thought you'd buy yourself some time inside the warm pub before you had to leave and go back home.

"So… Where are you from?", you tried making small talk.

"Pardon me?", he inquired politely.

"You know… Back in the Underground."

He made low crackling sounds, and you thought he was burning something up. You realised it was probably just the sound of his breath.

"I'm from Snowdin."

"Hnnn!", you hummed with a spike of interest. "I didn't get to know how it was like there."

"Why not?"

"I couldn't handle the cold when I was younger."

"Where were you from?", he asked as he took your cup and piled it by the sink. "If you don't mind me asking, of course."

"I'm from Home."

"Home?"

"Yeah, Home. You know? The Old Capital…?", you explained with a tinge of hurt. People remembered the Old Capital, right?

Realization fell on him, and his flames made a hissing sound. " You mean the Ruins?"

You cringed sligthly at that, but tried to not let that on your face.  

“Yeah, whatever you town's people called it.”, you said it a little more sarcastically than you intended, and chastised yourself mentally.

“Snowdin was barely a settlement. Much less a town.”, he spoke. “ The houses were too sparses in the middle of the woods.”

"I always thought people still thought of Home as 'the old capital', to be honest."

"Most don't remember.", he pointed out. "Very few monsters were there to see how it was like."

"Do you remember?"

"I was there."

You were a little skeptical about that.

"You don't look old enough for that."

"How old do I look, then?"

He stepped away from the counter so you could see him better, and you realized you couldn't tell his age very well. He had a good posture, not at all like an old man's. He would need to be at least a few hundred years old to have you considering he could have been there. 

"I can't tell.", you admit. "But you definitely do not look that old."

You thought you saw a smile under the flames. It was gone as soon as it appeared.

" I'm older than the barrier, at least.", there was a contained laugh in his voice, and you gaped at that.

"No. Way."

"I think I may have a picture from that time, if you don't believe.", the fire mosnter teased.

"You're pulling my leg.", you accused, pointing a finger at him and not being able to keep from smiling.

"Believe me if you would like.", he shruged.

"You're old as FUCK!"

"If you think so.", he said, and that brief smile showed up again.

"Oh, my stars, you could be my grand-grand-grand-grand-greatfather.", you joked, sliding to the side against the counter.

"I could", he agreed, nodding.

You were about to embarrass yourself and say he was too good looking to be that old, when you both hear the front door creak open and a rabbit hop inside cheerfully.

"Heya, Grilbz!", it was a chubby and short rabbit, wearing a thick pink jacket and no boots. She spotted you and hopped your way. " 'Evening, miss!", she pratically shouted next to you, way too enthusiastic. "Who's this pretty lady?", she asked the fire monster and you felt bashful over the compliment.

What was it with people today, complimenting you? Weiiiiiird. But, like, cool weird. The coolest. Please, let them stay like that.

"She's a client.", he answered.

"Does she have a name?", she leant over the stool next to you, barely being able to reach the top and struck a laid-back pose 

"Rose.", you offered a hand to compliment her, which she grabbed in an unnexpectedly strong grip for a little bunny like herself.

"Nice ta meet ya!", she said.

After that, she grabbed a rag and started cleaning up the pub. You checked the time on your phone - dang, there were even more messages from your family. You ignored those - and you thought it was close enough to their opening hour that you maybe should leave.

"I got to go now. It was nice to meet you, though."

"Equally!", the rabbit shouted to you from across the pub, where she was cleaning the tables.

"See you tomorrow?", you say to Grilby.

"See you tomorrow.", he shook your hand and you left.

Outside, the cold was even more intense, but that drink you had heated you up from the tip of your toes to the last strand of your hair, keeping you warm even in the harsh weather. The sky was pitch black, and the street lights flickered to life. You made a run for home to get out of the cold faster, and it wasn't long before you were in front of you family's bakery shop. You dug your fangs into your lower lip and opened the door, summoning whatever little courage you had. 

You smelled fresh baked bread and thought that maybe everything had gone ok while you were gone. There was no one behind the cashier, and you went to check the kitchen. You regretted it as soon as you stepped there: your parents, your aunt and uncle and your older sister were all there, the whole gang was baking. The spider monsters all wore white aprons, with smears of flour and eggs here and there. They stopped everything they were doing when you arrived, and you sister was the first to reach for you, with hands covered in flour, into a hug. 

"Where have you been?!", your mother shouted.

"You're mad or what?!", you sister let you go and grabbed your shoulders. You think you might have some dough in your jacket now.

They all had something to say about your little stunt, and laid their worries at you for what felt like hours. They only stopped to take the breads out of the ovens, and you used that moment to slip away. There is nothing you want more than to change into something more comfortable and pass out on your bed.

Ready to sleep, someone knocks at your bedroom door and you groan.

"Hey.", your cousin steps in with a hand stuck inside a box of cereals.

"Hey.", you muttered against your pillow.

"Cereal?", he offers, sheepishly.

You don't answer, just stretch one of your arms toward him. The message gets through to him.

He hands you the box and you roll on your back. You tilt the box just right so some of the cereal falls into your open mouth. 

"Dad made them not go out looking for you.", he said quietly.

"Bwess 'im.", you said with your mouth full. You swallowed. " Where did they get the groceries?"

"Uncle Ernie forgot he had asked you anything and bought it himself."

"Oh, thank the stars...", you sighed, a huge weight lifting from your shoulders.

"They're pretty mad at you though."

"Ha!", you barked. "And I don't know that?", you joked sarcastically.

"No, but for real!", a guilty smile pulled the corners of his mouth over his fangs. "Aunt Clarice looked like she was going to have a stroke."

"Let her have a stroke!", you kicked a imaginary enemy floating in the air. " Maybe then she will see it's bad to worry and calm down!"

"I'd rather not. It was hell here while you were gone."

"I noticed.", you pushed your phone on his face. "Dude, she sent me  _ forty _ messages."

"Fuck.", he gaped at the messages displayed on your phone's screen. "How about you not do that again?", he suggested.

"Sure sure."

You didn't speak of it any longer. Your cousin sat down with his back against the bed and turned on your tv on a cartoon channel. You watched kid's shows through the night, to soon finishing the box of cereals.

He went to his own room later, but not before he heard your snores and turned off the tv.


	3. Snow another day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some family activities before going to see Grillby.

Your alarm clock wakes you up at 4 am sharp, and you find it specially hard to leave your bed. It had gotten impossibly colder during the night, and you rolled your blankets around you and over your head to keep the warmth in. You absent-mindedly noticed your window was rattling furiously, and rolled to see what was up. Out there, in the dark of the night, a heavy snow storm raged, wind banging straight into the glass and you could swear it was making the house shake a little, as if it, too, was feeling cold.

Time is money, or in your case, bread, and you forced yourself to stick your feet out and sit up to put on your puffy slippers. They were shaped like round, fluffy, purple spiders with eight little stumps each for legs. Still holding firmly onto your blankets, you left your room for breakfast. Groans and sighs echoed up the house, and you knew there were people awake already. On your way down the stairs, you came across Legs carrying his younger brother over his shoulder. The young spider monster still had some drool on the corner of his mouth and was rolled into a blanket burrito. He moaned about the cold, begging for Legs to let him go so he could go back to his warm bed.

"Can't, buddy.", he yawned, two sets of arms holding his brother and the remaining set stuck inside his pants' pockets.

At the dining table, there was a general feeling of discouragement. Even your father, who already drunk a lot of coffee in the morning, had left the mug in the cabinet in favor of drinking aproximately a litre of it straight from the jug. You watched as your mother took the jug from his hands to keep him from having a heart attack, and puting it away from his reach, which turned out to be relatively close to your spot on the table. You picked it up and poured yourself a full mug.

No one spoke much today, except maybe to complain that snow days should be days off for you all. None of them meant it trully, as there was bread to be baked and patrons to attend.

The humans in the weather channel talked nonstop about the sudden temperature drop, about how much it had snowed during the night, and how other humans would be having trouble geting places. Their voices were so absolutely obnoxious, the third time they repeated the same faded lines on the weather prediction for the day, you picked up the remote control and changed the channel to one run by monsters. Mettaton's square metalic body, wearing a suit and a bright pink bow, flashed into view. His autotuned voice was too high for your liking, and you were about to change the channel again, but your sister took the control from your hands.

_\----.... hate crimes-.... Shameful-...._

_"_ Wait _"_ , she said and turned up the volume.

The news were about as heart warming as the awful weather outside.

_Today we celebrate fifteen years that I, the Brightest Star of the Underground, have made my debut above ground! It is a shame to start this wonderful holiday with sad news like this._

The robot pretended to dry away tears from his face with the back of his gloved hand. His distress seemed legit, if a little too over the top. You wondered if he was doing that for dramaticity or if he was genuinely sad. You liked to think that even robots have feelings, specailly if the robot in question is Mettaton, whom you've heard had brigthened the lives of all those monsters that lived beyond the Old Capital. He seemed like a good enough person.

_Let us all hope those awful people meet their destiny behind bars!_

Then followed pictures of humans. All those photos looked like they had been photoshoped to frame them behind said prision bars. You thought that they seemed quite creepy. Something about those photos humans use in documentations made them look like they were either thinking of murder of had just 'dusted' someone. You were glad when your sister changed her mind about watching the news and turned the television off.

You were still alarmed by how often humans committed crimes, murder specially. There was a heavy silence among you, and everyone ate and washed the dishes without a peep. You didn't notice then, but you were clenching your teeth very hard.

The kids went upstairs, where they had their video games, and all the adults remained on the ground floor, putting on their "battle gear": white coats, black hair nets and aprons. You cousin, Legs, was the only exception, as it was his turn to take care of the shop today. It's baking time. You all moved on to the industrial kitchen on the back of the store, which was a completely different room from the kitchen your were in previously. You had everything jumbo sized: refrigerator, oven, freezer and one or other cool machine for more intricate sweets, courtesy of a benefactor. You, your sister, your parents and your cousin's parents all gathered around the wooden table in the middle of the room, each already knowing what they would be doing. You had cookies, croissants, muffins, tarts, and many other things on your to-bake list, but today you were the one responsible for the tarts. All kinds of them: fruity, buttery, creamy, spidery… All were spidery, actually. Spiders and something else, that was the way to go in this bakery.

You decided to start with the creamy one (with spiders).

The process was simple, and fairly similar to how humans did it, but all resemblances in the recipes always were blow away when it was time to let the magic do it's job. If the eggs humans consumed were laid by chicken, yours were non-fertilized eggs laid by snowdrakes. One of your classmates had asked you about those before, and she was so interested about it, under the misconception that snowdrakes were like human's old fashioned dragons. You had taken the entire break between classes that day to explain to her what snowdrakes were, and how they did not classify as dragons.

You broke the eggs and separated the yolks and the egg whites, simultaneously, you also started to weight the flour and butter with your other hands on the scale.

You worked silently for a while, everyone too sleepy and mad with you to be casually baking, but it didn't last long. The clock ticked 9 am, and your sister stepped away from the dough she was mixing to pick up the radio and turn it on a monster radio broadcast. Mettaton's top pop hits began to play, and the mood lifted some. You hummed along to it, and you noticed your uncle was cutting the spider cookies with rhythmic clicks on the table.

It was so cold before, and the burning oven was like a giant heater. You confess you approached it from time to time just to warm up your fingers, cold and covered in flour and butter.

You spent the whole morning just baking, the air filled with a strong scent of what you could only assume was happiness in the form of food. You all hung your aprons again inside the armoire and proceeded to fix the table for lunch. Your aunt and uncle moved to the common kitchen's refrigerator and oven, being the ones in charge of cooking lunch today. Sitting by the table - more like _dusting away_ , really. Your hands were slightly sore from manually mixing all the ingredients and your feet felt like they were burning from standing on them all morning - you thought about your family's chores, and how you all did things in turns. Today was Legs' parents’ turn to cook lunch, but tomorrow it would be Legs' and your sister's turn. You probably could cook by yourself, multi-task your way through cooking as you did in baking, and would definitely like to try it. You didn't really cook your family's meals, since you were the one attending to a college, therefore labeled too busy.

You weren't going to your classes since last tuesday.

The smell of freshly pressed peach juice makes your stomach growl.

You had roasted spiders with sweet sauce and soy salad today. Your were salivating, and sneaked up behind your uncle to fish out one of the spiders qualm your hunger.

"Uh-uh.", your aunt saw you, and slapped the spider off your hand.

"Ouch!", you retracted your now throbbing hand.

"Sit down, Rosey.", she shooed you back to your chair.

"Humph!", feeling hurt emotinally as well as physically, you sat down again.

When they were done, they put down the food trays on the table: enough food to feed a small army, and you all casually tried to be the last to get a spoon full of the spiders. It delved into a little fight between you and your sister - you got one spider too many! Did not! - like your were little kids, until your mother threatened to make you go back to sharing a room like you used to. You both dropped the conflict almost immediately.

Stuffed and tired, you retreated to your room, to pass out for most of the afternoon. You woke up breathless, having somehow dug your face into the pillows until you couldn't breath, and woke up. It was a little over 4 pm.

"Shit!", you cursed and put on the first pair of boots and jacket you found.

Legs was playing a game on his phone when you passed by him on your way to the door. He attempted to hide it under the table, and grimace when he it saw it was just you heading towards the door.

"Woah woah, where do you think you're going?"

"Out.", a rush of cold air hit you right in the face when you opened the front door.. "I'll be back for dinner!", and left.

Your feet sunk into the thick snow on the street, and you barely could feel your hands. Air condensed in front of you, and you fought against wind and snow to reach your destination.

Grilby's assistant was there this time when you arrived at his pub. Her fur was perfectly brushed and full of little braids with childishily cute little motifs.

"Good afternoon!", she beamed at you for behind the counter. Assuming from the noise of water and clincking cuttlery, she was washing the dishes.

“‘Afternoon.”, it was so much nicer inside the pub than out, you removed your jacket so the heat could wash over you faster.

Just like last time, the pub was devoid of clientele. Not spotting the fire monster, you inquired his employee about his absence.

"Grillbz is just upstairs. Forgot his glasses or something.", she explains.

“Oh.”, you threw the jacket over the counter. “Hope you don't mind me here then.”, you didn't wait for her answer, sitting down on a stool across from her.

“Pfff.”, she rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, I totally dislike company.”, there was so much sarcasm in her tone, you knew she was joking. “Oh my God, has no one ever told you that keeping company for busy bunnies when they are doing their boring jobs is, like, super rude?”, she win

“So rude.”, you shook your head in mocking disapproval.

“The rudest.”, she smiled at you.

 _Yup_ , you thought. _You both will be getting along juuuuust fine._

Grillby comes down the stairs a while later wearing a button up shirt and jeans. He asks the bunny if she had offered you a cup of water yet, and she gets one of the cups she had just washed for you.

You follow Grillby to a table a little farther away from the counter, next to a window. You can see the ice on the glass begin to melt when he sits down next to it.

And. Doesn't. Say. A. Thing.

He kinda just stares at you behind his glasses, poised like a perfect statue on his side of the table. You sink a little into the cushion of your seat, and begin cracking your knuckles, unsure of if you should say something first or if he is going to do the talking.

"So?", the silence is too much for you, and you hope he would just start talking already.

"So.", he mimics you. Urgh.

"Like, what do you want from me?", you ask.

For a second you thought he was going to keep the silence a little longer, but them a flare comes out from where his mouth would be, and you feel the hot breath warm the air between you.

"What do you want from our talk?", you swear you see him straighten his back a little more, but that somehow only made him look more relaxed. His flames swing slowly.

Oh.

So he's gonna do the "how do you feel about it" approach?

You need every last fibre of strength in you to keep yourself from looking bored.

"Sincerily, I just want you to tell them I can go back Home."

"The Ruins, you mean?"

Ah, there's the name again. You cringe a little.

"You wouldn't consider it ruins if you knew it.", you cross your arms in front of you.

"I have seen it.", he reminded you. "I saw what it was like at it's best, and then recently, at it's worse. There's nothing but ghosts there."

"That is not true.", you sneer, showing off some more of your fangs. "I grew up there, and I know every corner and nook. We all lived there and, yeah, sure, we had some problems with geting food now and then, but the tunnel is no longer locked. I can go back there, and live my life how I want to."

"And how would that be?"

"Free from humans.", you spit. "No one will look at me like I'm a threat, no one will treat me less than what should be right.", as you speak, you raise your shin, and your voice gets a little higher.

Grillby's eyes dart from you to his helper, maybe not wanted her to hear what you are talking about for the sake of privacy. To your luck, she seems to not have noticed, still washing the dishes and doing what you can only assume is a little dance to the rhythm of whatever song she is listening to on her headphones.

"It's true that things aren't going great above ground.", he proceeds. "But there's hardly anything left for us Underground."

"What about the other monsters who moved back?", you inquire.

"We do have a great many of them living there, but they haven't chosen the Ruins as their residence. Most of them were residents of the Capital, and have returned to their previous homes."

"I don't care.", you say, a little out of spite. "I can live by myself back Home. I can cross Snowdin whenever I need."

Despite basically not moving from his position, you notice how Grillby's eyes looked tired.

"How was your home?", he asked softly this time.

You make an effort to bring back the memories. It has been so long, you focus on the details you remember. Dusty soil, old spider webs, the smell of pie coming from your neighbor's house… You involuntarily sigh, your mouth salivating.

"I lived with just my parents and my sister back then. Spindel wasn't born yet. Mom had him after we came above ground.", talking about him, it's almost like your little brother is next to you. He had a strong presence, with his high pitched voice and childish behavior. "We lived in one of the small houses. We had to share a room, so we could use the others for storing and baking."

"Wish you could see, there was flour and sugar everywhere. It got stuck on the underside of our shoes, and we had to scrap it off every other week or else we would be slipping around. I remember when my sister hit her head on a rock one day because of that. Mom had gotten so stressed. She was sure Frostbite would just wake up one day with a bigger wound on her head."

"We played on the webs while they baked. We could craft almost anything, as long as we had a solid base to weave around. We made an entire storage out of silk around some rocks. You know, those pointy ones, stalagmites? We build around those."

He continued to listen to your history, what you remembered from your childhood in the Underground, with all the attention one would reserve to a religious cerimony. It felt nice to just talk, and you relaxed slowly into your tale. He leaned a little towards you when you got a little more excited telling him about the little adventures you had down there with the other kids. You told about pranking the froggits and then getting scolded for scaring them, about having a dance off with the migosps and picking on the looxs.

You didn't notice when it had gotten late and you had to leave.

Bailey, his employee, had to come sweeping near your booth for you to realize what time it was.

"I guess it's time to open up.", Grillby seemed like he had gotten carried away by the history too, and stood up to stretch his shoulders.

"Whoops, my bad. I didn't mean for it to take that long.", you smile apologetical.

"No, that's good.", his core popped and he hissed in pleasure as his magical joints all slid into place. "It's a great help, actually."

"Same time next week?"

"Same time next week.", he agrees.

You go back home.

Legs is still watching the bakery when you arrive. he looks at the clock, then speaks to you.

"You're late.", he points out. "Where did you run off to?"

Oh. Yeah.

"Oliver's house.", you lie. You fake a smile. "We watched some movies."

"Oh.", he turns his attention to his cellphone on his lap. "What did you watch?"

"Just some horror movies", you say, and head up the stairs.

While you are hushing to your room, Legs types out a message to your friend.

_"hey oliver i didnt know rose was visiting u today"_

The answer came a few minutes later

_"what r u talkin about? Rosey didnt come today"_

 


	4. Lie, lie, lie.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How did you even get into this situation?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters are going to be a lot shorter from now on, because It's hard for me to write 6k words chapters every time.

There went you up the stairs, each step taking you closer to the perspective of a comfy and warm bed. Your head, however must have been playing tricks on you, because you could swear you heard someone call your name.

"Rosey!", oh, no, actually it was just your mother. The spider monster was a fling of stairs behind you, leaning against the railing, all six hands stuck into kitchen mittens.

"What's up, mom?", you leant so far over the railing, like you had no strength to stay up for any longer.

"Do you know what day is today?", she asked, in that way moms always ask their children when they already know the answer to their question but asked just to make sure you knew too.

"Friday?", why, were you forgetting anything, you hoped the way you looked at her could send that message.

"The day of the month, Rose.", there was sarcasm souring up her tone.

"Ah.", you cocked your head to the side. "It's the 26th."

"And when were you supposed to pay for this months tuition?", she prompted.

"Uh… Yesterday?", you answered, sheepishly.

"Go pay it.", she rasped, dryly.

"Ok, ok...", you continued going up the stairs.

"Now.", she warned. "Or else you will forget!"

"Yes, ma'am...", you let out a long sigh, now two flings of stairs away from her.

It was a blessing when you laid down on your bed, joints popping and pulling the blanket over your shoulders. You spent the first half hour dead to the world, barely moving, until you could feel the sole of your feet again, too cold for sensation.

Then, and only then, you minded pulling your laptop to your side so you could check out that payment. First, you opened a new tab to check your bank account. Multiple zeroes, just beyond the thousands. What a glorious sight, you sighed every time you saw it.

Not a penny of it was yours.

Being part of the humans-monsters integration program, you had been enrolled into a human university, all paid and taken care of by the monster's Embassy. The bank account you were accessing was under your parents' names, but who really was depositing money there at the beginning of every month was an agent from the Embassy. Not even a cent was your to spend freely, restricted for the payment of educational fees.

You had gotten involved with that project way back when you were attending to the school around the mountain, built by monsters, for monsters. it was built not long after the barrier was broken, and was big enough that a couple hundred students could attend to it, making it possible for all young monsters who once lived under the mountain could enroll at simultaneously.

It was a fairly small building, but you made the most of it. There were many monsters who were qualified to teach, so it wasn't uncommon to see the same monsters tutoring in multiple class grades.You had the same teachers for years, until you even stopped seeing them as teachers, and they became like family in your eyes. One of the other were indeed friends with your parents, and once or twice came over for dinner (no monsters were hurt-slash-eaten during those dinners. You're not savages!).

One day, at the beginning of your senior year, the directress called your parents and you over to her office, to discuss your future. She was a monster with only one eye, small and wrinkly like a raisin, claws and horns perfectly polished and painted pink. She wore the equivalent of a monocle held by a thin and firm wire. If you weren't wrong, she was a Loox.

The monster elder had studied you carefully behind the thick lens of her monocle, but spoke to your parents, sitting on each side of you.

"I believe you must have heard about the integration program, have you not?", she inquired, sitting so gingerly on her arm chair behind her desk, she moved like any sudden movement could easily break her limbs.

"More or less.", you father declared.

"What is it about? Is this about our daughter's behavior? What has she done this time?", your mother was quick to assume that was the matter in question, nervously rolling her foot on the knot of her ankle.

"Mom...", you murmured, embarrassed. You were famous for messing with humans even then.

The directress smiled to reassure the spider monster.

"He he he, do not worry, Rose has been in her best behavior this semester.", you couldn't not have noticed that she hadn't said anything about your behavior in _previous_ semesters. "In truth, her grades have been satisfactory, e we would like to offer her an opportunity."

You hadn't needed to look at your parents to tell which expression they had on their faces. You never had talked much about your grades at home, and you suspected that they thought you were a lousy student. Aham, yeah, you were so proud to see them confused then. Their daughter was smart and they didn't even know! What did that tell them about themselves and how much time they spent with their children, you wanted to tease them so bad.

You are glad that that day ou decided not to.

"The Embassy's humans-monsters integration program aims to periodically introduce monsters to places the government can monitor and ensure the safety of our people while they build human relationships."

Oh, no…

"What we propose is to enroll your daughter in one of the universities under our jurisdiction. If you intent on continuing your studies, therefore ensuring a promising future, full of opportunities."

No, no, no!

They couldn't make you go to a university full of humans!

Or could they, you had thought.

Cautiously, you turned to observe your parents' reaction. Your mother had been doing that thing she did when she wants to ask something, but doesn't know how to ask: she cracked her knuckles repeatedly, loudly. Meanwhile, your father had been perfectly still. There's this thing spiders do when they're hunting: they stay still until the next thing moves and wakes up their hunting instincts. He had been doing that then, if the way he had been rubbing his fangs against each other meant anything.

"We don't know if...", you mother had started, four pairs of eyes silently inquiring the directress.

She must have had understood, because then she had said:

"The Embassy will cover all the costs, of course."

"She'll go.", your parent had answered simultaneously at that new information, faces colored with relief and happiness. Money had that effect on them.

Afterwards, there had been no excuse you could give or sickness you could fake. By any means, you were already an university student in their eyes.

You had spent the next months doing your best to find a way to convince them of not making you attend to the university. Talks, excuses, promises… Nothing worked on them. Then, at your peak of maturity, you gave them the silent treatment. You dragged yourself through your senior year, expecting your negligence to be enough to lower your graes enough that they wouldn't admit you to the university anymore. Your family hadn't even noticed that you weren't studying as much as before, until the directress called them again.

"Rose, get down here!", later rather than never, you mother got furious with your little stunt. From the fourth floor, you had heard her yell your name.

You went down the stairs like you were walking to the gallows. Your relatives all hid away from the storm that was about to start between the two of you, closing the doors in hope of blocking out the sermon you were about to hear.

"Yes, ma'am?", you had said, controlled and polite, voice so low you could barely hear yourself.

"Your directress just called me. Mind explaining to me why you haven't submitted a single assignment in the past months?"

You were absolutely terrified of what she would say if you confessed your intentions, so kept your mouth shut at first.

"Finals are coming and there you are, letting your opportunities slip away! Do you think this is a joke?!", she yelled, and you had felt smaller than the tiniest spider alive.

"Sit down.", she had pointed to a chair by the dinner table and you obeyed. She sat in front of you.

"What are you doing, Rosey?", you weren't able to maintain visual contact, and was forced to stare at your feet.

"Rose!", like this, so close, her voice seemed to shake the house's foundations.

The shame and the fear of the consequences tied a strong knot at the bottom of your stomach, and, among hiccups and a sudden lack of breath, you decided to talk:

"I-I thought that if I had lower g-grades, they wouldn't want me at their university.", you confessed, head held low. "If you wouldn't let me not go, I tried to make then not want me..."

"Rosey...", your mother's stance relaxed, reclining her back against the chair. "Why do you hate so much the idea of going to that university?"

"Because it's infested with humans! You want me to see them every day… They don't have no compassion in their souls, mom!"

The older spider monster's expression had soften deeply with apprehension.

"That's not true..."

"Mom, just read the newspapers! Only yesterday they set flame to one of us in the middle of the street! Nobody stopped them! Nobody did anything to stop them!"

"And that is one of the reasons why you must go to this school, Rosey!", you hadn't noticed you were crying until she had lifted your face to dry away your tears. "I don't want you to live your live inside a box, unable to go out, my daughter.", she reminded you, voice gentle like a plume. "Nothing can hurt you there. Whatever you get out of this deal will sum at profit for you. Imagine that, you would be one of the first monsters to ever get a degree, honey. Think about the future you'll have, as a university graduate."

"My future is here!", you hiccuped. "Here at the pastry, working with you, and dad, and with Frostbite."

"Honey.", she had brushed your hair behind you ear, gently. "Your future is much greater than an old pastry, tied to your family. The world is so big now for you to stay in the same stinky little town all your life."

You had wrapped your arms around her neck and let yourself fall into her arms.

"Explore the worlds, Rosey."

That conversation had happened so long ago…

Oh, what would your mother say now if she knew what happened…

You wouldn't explore the world. At least not one where humans decided where you could go and what you could do. Not in a world where magic a was excuse to expel you from your last refuge.

On that day you had used magic in class, only to make a small demonstration of how magic didn't effect organic matter in it's constitution, something went wrong. The experiment, which was supposed to be controlled and cast on a small laboratory rat, went out of control when another student struck your arm with the sharp end of a mechanical pen. Startling you affected your intention during the experiment, into a stronger, defensive spell, and you lecturer was caught in the wave of magic you conjured. Blue spider webs tied around his limbs firmly. He suffered superficial injuries, and needed the students' help to calm down and head down to the infirmary.

Of course, the university's president couldn't let your little mistake slid. Without the right to defend yourself, they condemned your actions as an attack against the employee, and, without any hesitation, signed your letter of expulsion.

There was only one semester left before you could graduate. And they expelled you.

In your room, you paid for this month's student bill, knowing very well that this would be the last time you'd do that.

You wanted to cry. You wanted to bite your pillow, eviscerate it, spread the anti-allergy foam across the room, let out all your rage.

Stars, you would need to lie. Your parents couldn't know, ever.

Why did you need this damn psychologic profile anyway!? It was a waste of time! The longer you waited, the harder it would be to keep the truth hidden. Your parents couldn't know. By all means, you just needed to disappear.

And what better place for that, if not under the Ebbot Mountain?

"Rose!", you let out a shriek when your sister knocked at your door. "Dinner is ready! Come out!"

"I'm going!", you shouted back and put on your spider puffy slippers.

At the table, everybody seemed to be in high spirits.

Your younger brother was behaving, miraculously. Legs told a good joke, the event of the year. Frostbite, always sour, laughed today. Stars, you were feeling really out of place. The lies about you academic situation weighted over your shoulders and made you lose your appetite. Luckily, all seemed to be entertained by the histories your aunt was telling them about her day - it seems she was praised by a couple of friends for losing weight - and nobody noticed that you hadn't eaten half of what was on your plate.

You pretended to eat until their moved to dessert - today you were having a spider mousse with brownies - and withdrew with a slice of brownie and your plate half full. You scrapped the remaining food into the trash and went upstairs to have your dessert in peace.

Later, when you were listening to a podcast featuring Mettaton, somebody knocked at you door again.

"May I come in?", it was your father.

"Sure.", you turned off your laptop and covered yourself under your blanket.

Your dad was a big man, his beard was thick and covered more than half of his face. His hair was short, shaved into a military cut. His eyes were small, dark like oil, just like his hair, except maybe around his temples, when he was growing white hair like weed. He had always been the calmest man in the house, including your uncle and Legs, who never got stressed over anything. Your father hated unnecessary drama, and when he wasn't working he was listening to his favorite radio show, broadcast by monsters.

He walked into your room, heavy steps like he weighted as much as a boss monster, and he sat down on the side of your bed. Springs creaked under his weight - result of very sugar heavy diet - and sense of dread downed in your belly.

"Rose", he sighed. "Is everything alright?"

He asked you with such a serious expression, for a moment you didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, everything is fine.", and you gave him a half smile and winked at him. Maybe you could distract him by being charming?

"Yesterday you ran away through the window.", he said like he was reading a list. "And today you went out without telling anyone where you were going.", he frowned in worry.

"Yeah...", you looked around, sheepishly. "That was… Childish."

"That is was."

"I'm sorry."

"And today? Where did you go?"

"I went to visit a friend.", your heart beat faster, the lie getting stuck on your throat.

He stared you, like who stared a math equation. All the factors under his eyes, but finding the wrong result. you understood that he knew you weren't telling him everything. He studied you, but soon sighed again, with the expression of a man who fights a losing battle.

"Rosey.", he said your name so sweetly, and started to play with your hair, swirling the ends around his finger, making little curls. "You know you can talk to me and to your mother about anything, don't you?", his voice wasn't louder than a whisper, so low that you could even hear the street noise over his voice.

Suddenly unable to speak, you nod. Your answer seemed to satisfy him, and the corners of his mouth flipped up over his fags, into a little smile.

"I'll see what your mother is doing.", then he stood up and left the room.

When you heard him closing the door, you let out a breath you didn't notice you were holding.

Stars, you had omitted things before, but lying was something else. You despised lying, and had never lied about anything important. Sooner or later they will find out. You covered your head and hug a pillow. The seams were creaking like there were going to tear under your strong hold.

You turned on the music loud and got yourself prepared to never leave your room ever again - that is, until your sister came to tell you dinner was ready tomorrow.

You couldn't relax at all. Later, you, your siblings and your cousins all went to the living room to watch tv, and there was no position that felt comfortable to you. Before the end of the program, your cousins pushed you to the edge of the sofa, and you gave up watching anything tonight with them.

Not wanting to do anything, you put your things aside and weaved with your magic silk until you got sleepy, and when you fell asleep you didn't dream.


	5. Knock Knock, spider delivery!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dreemurr household

You feel a lot better in the morning.

Your sleep schedule is a hopeless mess, more even on week days. Between staying up late to study and waking up early to tend to the shop, you barely had any sleep. Sleeping more than six hours after another turbulent week was a relief, and the everlasting weariness and edgy mood clouding your mind were finally gone, for as long as the weekend lasted.

Despite the roaring sound of the wind banging the windows, or rather because of it, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The light showering your room was so nice, you couldn't resist and uncovered yourself to better savour it. Birds sung outside. It was a beautiful day.

Weekends are your favorite days: your open the shop much later and therefore wasn't forced to wake up at ungodly hours of the morning. Judging by the shouts coming from the corritor, though, it seems like you were the only one who decided to use the extra free time to have a drop dead date with your sleeping schedule.

You left the security of your room and walked into the war zone that was the rest of the house. On the floor immediately bellows yours, the boys were running around carrying brooms. When Bobby, your younger cousin, ran past you, you used your six arms to grab him and lift him over your head.

"Nooo! Put me down, Rosey!", the young spider boy demanded.

"I'll do if you give me a kiss!", you teased him, wiggling your brows.

"Ewww. Mom!", he called. "Mom, Rose is being gross!", his face burned red when you started to pepper kisses all over his face.

"Evil human, put our king down!", your young brother, Spindel, pointed the broom at you like a sword. "Or else prepare yourself to confront the indestructible captain of the royal guard!", he hit the floor with the broom, as if making loud noises would make his small stature look more intimidating.

"Muahaha!", you let out a wicked laugh, playing along with their little game. "You will never defeat me, oh, brave captain! I'm the most powerful Witch of all the surface, and you will never defeat me!", you then used your magic to weave spider silk around Bobby, tying him up over your shoulders.

"Do not fear, my king! Spindel, the Brave, is coming to the rescue!"

"Get me down! Mom!", Bobby thrashed inside the spider silk burrito, but your magic was sturdy enough that his flailing about wasn't doing much.

Having heard her son calling, your aunt emerged from her room and spied what you were doing. She seemed amused by your little game.

"You're the king, Bobby. You're a big boy. I'm sure you can rescue yourself.", she barked a laugh and went downstairs.

"Traitor!", he whimpered in your arms.

"Jeez, that's rough, buddy.", you teased. "Betrayed by your own momma. Guess you'll have to get used to me kissing you, then."

"Noooo!", he howled, and you continued playfully kissing his cheeks.

The three of you played a little longer, until your stomach roared at you, announcing that you still hadn't eaten anything and that was unnacceptable.

"Go play, I, the Witch, gotta retire early in favor of a decent breakfast."

"Does that count as deafeating the Witch?, Spindel asked, looking at you with his big spider eyes full of childish sweetness.

"Of course it does.", you told him and untied Bobby, so they could celebrate their most recent victory.

It was late in the morning, so you turned out to be the only one still eating breakfeast, having a slice of leftover spider pie and a cup of tea. Pies were always more delicious a day after they were baked.

Your peace and quiet were short lived, ended abruptly by Frostbite storming into the kitchen, hands on her head and looking distressed. She spotted you and her grimace twisted into a smile.

"There you are.", she said to no one in particular.

"Heeeeeeey.", you muttered, your mouth full of pie.

"Finish eating and get dressed: we got delivery."

"Ahn?", you swallow and give her a crooked look. "Frost, today is saturday. We don't do deliveries until after 10 PM."

"It _is_ already after 10 PM, Rosey.", she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at the wall behind her. You saw the clock hanging there, marking a little after 10:30.

"Hnnn, shit.", you complained, finished your pie in one bite and went up the stairs to get dressed.

Now wearing your uniform and mounting your sister's bicycle (any other veicle would have been too costly, you reasoned), you tied the boxes full of baked goods inside the big basket in the front of the bike.

"Where do I take these?", you asked Frostbite.

"These go to the Queen's house.", she puffed her chest proudly to tell you the address.

"For real?!", despite the royal family having ordered stuff from you before, it had never been you specifically to deliver their orders. At that, your soul did a little somersault and your hands grabbed the bicycle's handlebar with force.

"Just go, they asked for it still in the morning!"

She didn't need to tell you twice.

How would be the queen's house, you wondered while dodging other cyclists on the bike lane. You suspected it would be a lot like the Embassy, classic and white. Certainly someone as influent as Her Majesty would live somewhere nice. Magic ran wild through your body at the rush and you wondered if that sweet lady from your childhood would still remember you, from when you lived in the Old Capital.

You arrived at the address, face burning from the dry wind against your cheeks. The house, you found out, was actually very different from the Embassy. The only thing that gave away any sort of link between both constructions was that the house had a similarly crafted ice statue right in the middle of the yard, beyond the snow covered wall of bushes which separated the yard from the sidewalk. You recognized Ice Wolf's craft, how he used ice magic to do the same thing he did at the Embassy. The little sunlight that hit the Delta Rune sculpted statue went through it like it would a prism, coming out in waves of multicolored pastel lights, with oscilating intensity as stray clouds passed by, blocking out the sun briefly. You let out a satisfied sigh: his sculptures were just this beautiful.

The house itself was much simpler, painted in lilac with little white details around the window frames. You climbed off your bike with the pastry order and dragged your little veicle with you to the front door. You pressed the doorbell and brushed your hair away from your face, tying it into a ponytail.

The door opened.

"How can I help you?", the boss monster's voice was way too low to be the queen's.

"You Highn- Prince Asriel!", you squeaked, shoulders tensing upon recognizing him.

"Oh, Rose.", he smiled at you with perfectly framed white teeth. "What brings you here?"

Your raised the orders, drawing his attention.

"My son, who's there?", you heard a much more feminine voice coming from inside the house.

"It's from the spider bakery, mom! Did you order anything?"

"No, I have not."

"Is it my order?!", a second voice inquired from inside, and, in a second, Frisk stepped out beside Asriel. "How much do I owe you?", they asked you.

"Frisk!", Asriel scolded. "You still haven't finished the ones from last time!"

"Emergency reserves.", the ambassador took the boxes from your hands. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Mom!", before retreating back into the house, Frisk called the boss monster. "Do you have any pocket money on you?"

The woman approached the threshold with money on her hands. You remembered the last time you had seen her on tv, but here and now, live, you could tell how much her fur has lost it's old luster, how her eyes seemed dark and tired behind sunken eyelids. You could see with every detail how the time has affected her. She always seemed so much younger when you lived in the Old Capital… Something bitter coiled in your chest, and you stared the inevitability of time in the face. It wasn't merciful for no one, not even for the queen.

"Oh.", her dark eyes were very expressive when she smiled at you. "We know each other, do we not?", she approached, looking at you sweetly.

You celebrated internally, a mix of relief, happiness and surprise spiraling inside your soul.

"Yes!", you said a lot louder than you intended. "We lived close by!"

Be casual, Rose, you told yourself. Act like meeting the queen isn't but an everyday thing to you.

"I used to knit pictures of you!", you squeaked with a voice higher than it was dignified. Your face immediately burned with shame.

You wanted to go back in time, just so you could slap yourself. _Yeaaaaaaah_ , Rose, why not tell her all your dark shameful secrets _while you are at it_?

"Oh, my. ", she blinked, taken by surprise. Despite your little moment there, neither of them laughed at you. While she just stood there, not quite knowing what to say at that information, Asriel had a grin slapped across his face, and politely bit back his laughter.

The wind roared and suddenly your jacket just wasn't that warm anymore, the heat from the exercise slowly fading. You stuck your hands deep into the pockets, but couldn't contain the shiver coursing down your spine. That didn't go unnoticed by the queen.

"Would you like to come in and have a seat?" she offered, stepping aside so you could get inside.

From where you were, you could see the flares of the fireplace in their living room. You hesitated, remembering that you technically still were on your work hours.

"Only while you get yourself a little warmed up. It's awfully cold today.", she tried again.

"I don't know..."

"We were having some hot chocolate. Would you like some?", she added.

"If you insist.", you threw you nagging thoughts to the wind and went inside.

They closed the door behind you and you followed them to the living room. The waving heat coming from the fireplace was a blessing.

The house was beautiful on the inside, and looked a lot bigger than you expected. The ceiling was specially high, and you immediately thought it should be obvious it would be  this high, since this was a house for boss monsters. The windows were proportionally taller, and sunlight washed the room profusely. Just like at the Embassy, all the furniture was in wood. A big television, albeit looking rather old, was poised at the corner, and two sofas and a armchair covered in wooly blankets were facing it. Frisk was siting with their legs over the armrest of one sofa when they saw you coming in, and immediately sat up straight. On their hands, one of the boxes you just delivered was open and with one or two donuts missing.

"Frisk.", Toriel called, sternly. "Don't you think you have had too many sweets already?"

They opened their mouth to reply, but seemed to give up and obediently closed the box and left it on the table, so it was just out of their reach.

"They love the things you bake.", Asriel told you. "One day you'll make our Ambassador very chubby!", he said the last part a little louder now, looking straight at the human in the room.

"HA!", the afore mentioned human barked from their seat, a toothy grin on their lips. "Look who's talking! Mister Chubby Cheeks."

"Frisk!", the monster's neck reddened under his thick white fur.

"Now, now, Frisk, don't bully your brother.", Toriel scolded playfully, then turned to Asriel, lightly pinching his cheeks. "Even if his cheeks are the chubbiest."

"Mom!", the poor boss monster was utterly embarrassed, and moved away from the queen's hands. He motioned at you with his eyes, and Toriel ceased to pursue his face.

You bit your lower lip, holding back your smile. Asriel is just so big, and even him has problems with being taken seriously. You thought that was just too cute.

"I'm gonna go make hot chocolate.", he announces and flees the room.

"Chubby cheeks?", when he is gone you can't help but question.

"You should've seen when we were younger.", Frisk said. "He had a chubby phase."

"No way."

"There's a photo of him there over the fire. Pretty sure he is still a little fat on that photo.", they stood up and went to pick the photograph for you. "Here it is."

Unexpectedly, it was a black and white picture. You recognized the background as somewhere around Waterfall. The glowing crystals in the background gave it away. Asriel was a small child, and, yes, quite chubby. On the photo, he was wearing an old fashioned bathing suit, and was held over the shallow waters by the king's hands. He didn't seem older than 6 years old on the picture.

Something was very odd. It was public knowledge that between the prince's falling down and Frisk descending into the Underground many years had passed. Asriel surely should be older. You looked again at Frisk, searching for anything indicating that they were younger than Asriel. Their nose, their skin, nothing. At best, they seemed to be older than the monster.

"He stayed chubby for a while.", they said.

"But...", you looked again at the picture. When the hell was it taken?

"Hn?", the human cocked their head to the side, in query. For a second, you thought you saw a daring look in their expression.

"When was this picture taken?", you asked.

"We used to own an older camera then.", Toriel said, catching up to your conversation. "The newer models are always too fragile, and hardly lasted anything after they fell into the Underground. The ones in better shape only ever took black and white pictures."

"I see..."

"That photo is quite old.", she pointed out, putting it back in it's place by the fire. "Would you like to see one more recent?"

"No, she would not!", you were about to agree when Asriel interrupted you with a tray and four steaming mugs.

"We could show her that one from-", the human pondered.

"Don't you even think.", the monster lad cut their line of thought short, which only got the human to snicker.

"Aw, come on.", you said as you accepted your mug of hot chocolate and added some marshmallows. "I'm pretty sure my family photos are more embarrassing."

"Hardly.", Frisk said, looking away and drinking their chocolate.

"And whose fault is that, hn?", the prince bit back.

You watched, a little lost in the conversation, as Frisk and the queen highfive'd, like they were celebrating a common achievement.

"It's been so long since I last saw you, child.", the queen changed the subject, now addressing you. "How old are you now?"

"I'll be 23 this year"

"You got so big and beautiful."

"Oh, jeez.", your hand flew to your hair, combing it with your fingers. "Thanks"

"I believe you have a sister, do you not?"

"Yeah, Frost. I think it was her who got your order."

"Does she always sound like she is sleepy?", Frisk asked, dumping more marshmallows into their mug.

"When did you call her?"

"Ern...", they tried to remember. "Around 8 AM…?"

"She takes a while to wake up. Stays sleepy most of the morning."

"Yeah. Asriel does that too."

"Ahem", the younger boss monster coughed. "I would wake up earlier if someone didn't wake me up in the middle of the night."

"Excuses!"

You laughed at the siblings bullying each other. You finished your hot chocolate and noticed that Frisk was once again with the box of pastries on their hands, sneaking a donut from themselves. Toriel picked one bagel herself when you heard a loud yawn. Coming down the hallway, wobbling like a little fawn, a skeleton man, big around his middle and with a stupid little sleeping mask written "bad hair day" over his eyes. Despite having no mass around his bones, his steps were heavy and you heard the wooden boards slightly.

"G' morning...", you all replied.

"Sans, my love.", Toriel called.

"yeah, babe?", he scratched his back under his novelty shirt, his eyes still covered by the sleeping mask.

"Why don't you go dress up? We got visit."

At that, the skeleton monster lifted the mask just enough to uncover one eye.

"Be right back.", he said flatly, turned right around and vanished into the room he came from.

You eyed the queen.

"Excuse my husband, please, he hasn't slept much lately.", she told you, sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. It's ok."

“Uncle Sans sleeps like the dead.”, Frisk said with their mouth full. Despite being a little off putting, you took that as a compliment to your cooking that they couldn't stop eating.

It didn't take long for the skeleton man to show up again, now relatively more presentable. He was stuffed into a very comfy looking jacket and sweatpants. You thought he still looked like he might fall asleep right away, and his voice was rough like sandpaper.

“G' morning, Tori.”, he said. You noticed he was short enough he didn't need to lean down much to kiss the taller woman on the armchair.

“Good morning.”

“Hey there.”, he said to you.

“Hey.”, you replied as casually as him, waving one of your arms at him.

“Sans, that's Rose. She used to be my neighbor.”, Toriel introduced you.

“Heya, neighbor.”

You had some idle chat for a while, until your phone buzzed violently on your pocket. You excused yourself to pick it up at the corner of the room. As soon as you answered the call, Frostbite was ranting at you and how long you were taking to come back, and if anything had happened. You explained you were just having a chat with the queen, which she dismissed as a excuse before you were done talking.

“ _Just come back already._ _”_ , she said and ended the call.

“Sorry, I gotta go.”

And you left.


	6. Muffins. Muffins everywhere.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You overbaked. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed my mind about Rosey's age. Previously it was mentioned that she was 19, but now I changed it to 22. I'll go back and fix that part from the previous chapter.

It sucks to not have anything to do, you decided while your hands were sticky with raw dough.

You had tried to sleep until late again, but today was one of those days when everyone was up and going about their bussinesses as loudly as possible. Between the loud adult conversations the infantile shrieks, you gave up staying in bed.

Your attempts at distracting your idle mind afterwards were mostly unsucesseful. There were never any good shows on sunday mornings, and your throbing scream indulced headache prevented you from doing anything worthwhile and interesting. You wish the shop was open today, then it would be easy to just lose yourself in meaningless tasks. But it was closed.

So you did what you do best: you baked.

It was borderline cathartic to smash and mix the dough, and all too very satisfying to dump little pieces of fruits and bugs in each bowl. The mass colored nicely when you added chocolate to one, and the smell was as sweet as your bed was inviting after long sleepless nights.

“Ern…”, your cousin stood by the doorway, watching you take a tray of steaming blueberry muffins from the oven. “Rosey…”

You placed the tray on the kitchen island and begun removing the muffins from the pans.

“Rosey.”

The sight of the empty shaper was just wrong, you decided, and started placing the paper cups over the forms, ready to receive more raw dough. The chocolate and spiders flavored one looked downright sinful when it slowly slipped into each cup. You dipped a finger into the dough and had a taste. The bugs weren't too crunchy, and the dough wasn't too thick, just perfect.

“Rose. You baked too much.”, Legs approached to count your losses, gesturing at the kitchen counter covered in flour and freshly baked muffins.

“That's silly. We can sell them at the shop tomorrow.”, the tray was full again, and you covered it with a cloth and set the timer.

“Rosey, how many of them did you bake?”

“Five or six muffins, I guess.”, you washed your hands on the sink.

“Do you mean five or six trays of them?”, he picked one of the strawberry flavored ones and inspected it. “They'll go bad before we can sell all of them!”

At that, you let go of the mixer and really looked around you. There were a bunch of them cooling down on the kitchen island, but there were even more on the counter, and before you notice, you were counting more than forty of them.

“Don't worry about it...”, you halfheartedly tried to reassure him. “I'll sell all of them somehow.”

He groaned and left the kitchen. Whatever you had in mind, he didn't want to be around if it didn't work. All you knew is that the smell of magic flour would take a while to go away.

You ignored your little banquet worth or muffins until a little before lunch, when Bobby had found out about them and was stuffing his face with them. Your uncle interveened, taking the half eaten baked goods from him.

“Hnn, Rose.”, he adjusted his glasses and spoke to you with his scratchy and worn out voice. “Maybe you should do away with these soon.”

Resigned, you compromised to get rid of them after lunch. You filled a big tupperware with them and went out in the cold.

 _Now where could you even go_ , you thought to yourself. Literally geting rid of them, throwing them in the trash, would be a big waste, but on the other hand there weren't many places you could go to sell them. Your first idea was to head out to your friend's house, and see if they wanted some.

You had this one friend from the human university who was actually nice. Oliver was fun to talk to, if a little too intense at times. You took your sister's bike and headed to her apartment.

Two knocks at her door. You reminded yourself to be patient, and played on your phone while you waited. You heard her wheelchair screeching before you heard her opening the door.

“Rosey!”, she beamed at you, and you couldn't not compare her to a happy puppy. Oliver was a chubby girl, and looked even chubbier there sitting on her wheelchair. A thick green and orange blanket covered her lower half, and she extended her arms to greet you. Long chocolate hair was slipping up from her pony tail, so graciously she looked like a painting.

“Hey there, hot stuff.”, you almost lifted her off her seat with a bear hug and gently put her back down.

“Hnn, what you got there?, you passed her the tupperware.

“Just thought you might like to help me finish these.”

“Say no more.”, and she invited you in.

You barely took a step inside when you heard a powerful bark and nails scratching against the carpet.

“Oh, stars.”, you said and Oliver laughed at your face.

Not a moment later, this big and fluffy black dog pounced over you, throwing your back against the nearest wall. You were glad that you had already handed out the sweets, because now they were safe from this big baby's sloppy kisses.

“A little help here, please.”, you barely held the dog's wet nose from your face.

“Whoops, sorry.”, she placed the muffins away from the dog's reach. “Flash, together!”, she patted her knee for effect.

Almost as fast as turning off a light, the dog let go of you and hurried to his owner's side, straight like a soldier, only his tongue still lolled out in heavy pants.

“Good boy.”, she pet his head and he positively melted into her touch. Such a goof.

You headed for the sofa – covered in black dog fur, of course – and made yourself comfortable. She brought the tupperware with her on her lap and aligned her wheelchair with the corner of the sofa, and it was like she was sitting on it with you.

“So, what have you brought to my humble abode?”

“I got you the spider ones this time. And chocolate and strawberry.”

“Niiiiiice.”

“I _will_ feel offended if you don't try the spiders.”, you said only half joking.

“Oh God, can we not?”, she couldn't stop looking at the one you had in your hands, pieces of spider showing under the dough. She grimace when you took a bite and legs stuck out from that spot you bit. “Like, I don't think I can eat it.”

“Relax, I'm not really going to make you eat it. Only think it's too bad that only I get to eat the good stuff and you get stuck with the boring ones.”

“Yeah, leave all the boring one to me, pretty please!”

“Boriiiiiiing.”

“Thank you.”, she feigned annoyance and took a big bite of the strawberry flavored sweet on her hand.

You ate and watched some marvel movies – you rejected any with Captain America, but were ok with the x-men ones – and talked about your silly things: books you've read, movies you watched, problems with the snow, and so on.

You were about 8 muffins in and stuffed out of your minds when Oliver's roommate arrived.

Now, when you found out about the guy, it had made a lot more sense as to why she was so nice to you when you first met. Despite everyone being downright nasty to you when you first started going to the human university, she was the one exception. She reserved to you as much respect and kindness as it was right, and she didn't even seem the least bit unnerved by your differences. While not unexpected – there ought to be _someone_ who's not an asshole in this damn building, you had thought – it was unnerving. At some point your assignments and papers had forced both of you to cooperate and trade notes, and you ended up going to her place to study. That was when you found out that her roommate was a monster himself.

Standing on his hind paws, Jack Black wasn't the usual gentle looking monster. Almost as tall as the door, bright glowing eyes and long sharp fangs showing under the flaps of his lips, Jack, much like his last name hinted, was a Black Dog. His skin and fur dissolved into mist, and he looked not unlike an unexpectedly realistic smudge painting.

“Heya, Jack!”, Oliver greet him as cheerfully as she did to you, and beckoned him with opena arms.

Tail wagging excitedly, Jack turned to stand on all four and threw himself at her lap. Being the size he was, he almost knocked her wheelchair over the sofa, before sliping his head over her lap. You both scratched behind his ear and under his chin, until he was a mess of a ghost dog. Your scratching session was cut short by Flash's bark, and Jack bouncing to play with his canine friend. Both black dog and "Black Dog” rolled on the floor, until he caught sight of what you were eating.

“Is there any left for me?”, he inquired, yellow eyes staked at the tupperware container.

“These aren't lactose free. Sorry, Jack, but you can't have them.”, you told him.

“Awnn...”, he made an effort to not look disapointed, but he he showed his deception clear as day on those big puppy eyes.

“Which is why we're having steak tonight!”, Oliver was quick to ammend. Stars, neither of your could handle his puppy eyes.

“For real?!”, his ears perked up and he jumped onto the sofa, between the both of you.

“When do I ever lie to you?”, the human arched an eyebrow at him, and the oversized dog positively howled in joy. Flash was subsequently gotten carried by his bigger friend's excitement.

You wondered how much extra meat she had in her freezer, being in charge of two dogs like these.

You left not long after that. Neither of you could handle yet another muffin, and you had an idea of what to do with the ones remaining.

You put on your cozy faux fur parka and hid your two extra sets of arms under the layers and left.

You weren't even sure if he'd be there today, it being sunday and all. It was just a nice thought: ”hey, I'll make you listen to my ramblings, we might as well get along!”, you rehearsed in your head, but chances were that he would be at his home, enjoying his leisure day. You sighed, already in front of the monster bar.

The sign was reading closed, and you were ready to turn and leave, when someone spoke to you.

“Heya, kiddo.”, a monster called you, and you turned to them.

The queen's husband – would that make him the king? Is that how it works? No, it should not, wasn't King Asgore still around? You had no idea if it was a matter of matrimonial ties or bloodline that decide who got to rule: that one history class you had as a child was too long ago and now wasn't the right time to think about that – was right there, head partially covered by the hood of his jacket. Still, you could clearly him flash you a smile.

“Going to Grillby's?”, he asked. You pointed at the “closed” sign and shruged.

“I was. But I'll have to come again tomorrow, I guess.”

“Heh.”, he glanced from you to the stabelishment, then back to you. “What you wanted from the shop?”

“I- Uh- Maybe a coffee? I don't know, I wanted to know if the owner would like some muffins.”, you mumbled.

“Huhn… In that case, don't mind the sign.”

He walked past you, and opened the door, showing to you that it was unlocked.

“Just come right in.”

“Is it ok?”, you arched an eyebrow at him.

“Heh, I'm visiting him, it's fine. And if he doesn't like the treat, you can give it to me.”

He held the door as you passed by him, and closed it after himself. You were headed for a seat by the counter when he stopped you.

“He's up this way.”, he walked behind the counter and went in past a wooden door. Over the threshold, a sign read “firedoor”. “You're Frisk's friend's too, right?”

“I… Guess so? They do eat a lot of my stuff.”

“Grilbz won't mind then.”

The door led to the staff room, you suspected as much, but Sans guided you further, past the room and up the stairs. Just like at your house, he lived on the level above his shop. It was a loft, sofa and tv to a side, kitchen to the other, and a lot of free space with a dinner table near a window. In contrast to the charming wooden scene downstairs, this was a lot more sterile and clean. It was all naked bricks and tiles, no curtains over the window frames, and three doors. As it was a fire monster's house, you couldn't not notice the trays and metal molds filled to the brim with little pieces of charcoal. From the window you could see the sun low in the horizon.

The skeleton man approached the dinner table, and knocked at it twice.

“No.”, a grave voice came from one of the rooms, throwing a tone of finality into Sans' short lived knock knock joke, before the fire monster came out.

“Come on, Grillbz.”, Sans said, pleased by his reaction at his would-have-been joke.

“I see you have company.”, he smirked behind his flames as he spotted you, and you would never guess a man with such an attractive smile would be as old as the barrier.

“Spider bakery special delivery service.”, you joked, raising the tupperware to your eye level.

The arch where his eyebrows would be shot up in pleased surprise.

“You didn't need to.”

“Don't worry about this. Just consider this my 'hey, let's get along' offer.”

He took the tupperware from your hands and inspected one of the muffins. There were only the spidery ones left after your munch down with Oliver earlier.

“You don't mind spider stuff, do you?”, a tingle of worry shot through you, and you found yourself cracking your knuckles under your parka nervously. “Er, it was really cold outside. I think they may not be as warm now too.”

“Don't worry about it.”

Monsters were so much more friendly than humans, and even better hosts, you thought as they made space for you to join them in their conversation. They set up a table by the window, and Grillby picked up a bottle of tempered condiment and a jar of juice.

You were an intuder to their friedly time, and you could tell clear as day. You drunk tea slowly and listened to their exchange. They spoke of things you couldn´t relate to, and of incidents you weren´t there to see. They laughed and joked and you tried joking too, and they were nice enough to listen to your bad jokes and smile like it was funny. Or maybe it was funny, but their jokes actually made them laugh, and your only got a pity smile.

You were about to take your leave, thank for being invited for the talk, but that you should really get going, when they mentioned something that caught your attention.

“And then it all fell down. Swear it looked just like when the barrier broke.”

In an instant your attention was all on Sans.

“You saw it?”, you heard yourself whisper.

“Yeah. Was there to see the residual magic and everything.”, he said like it was no big deal.

“I thought only the king and the human were there at the time.”, you admited.

“Nah, there was a bunch of people.”, he downs his cup in one go. “Frisk has always been really friendly wherever they went, you know? They made a lot of friends before going to the Castle, and some showed up at the very end. Me and my brother were there, saw how crazy it was. Tori was there before any of us. She may not be very athletic nowadays, but did she run that day. See, Frisk is really something, they became friends with the captain of the royal guard and with the royal scientist, too. It was really a lot more people than just us there.”

“Were you there too, Grillby?”, you inquired.

“Sadly, no. I was at work at the time.”

The conversation shifted to the old days, how things were like when the barrier was still up. More comfortable now, you activelly joined the conversation, relating certain events of the time to things you remembered fromy our childhood, and bit by bit, you did not feel as awkward for intruding.

“Grillby, do you still got that thing?”, Sans stood up after you emptied the juice jar, and went looking through his kitchen.

“It’s not in there, Sans. It’s probably downstairs.”, Grillby crushed a small cube of charcoal over a spider muffin and egun munching at it.

“Got it.”, and he leaped to the stairway.

“What is it?”, you were a little curious to see what he was geting down there.

“How old are you?”, he instead questioned you.

“Uh? I’m 22. Why?”, 

“You may like it then.”, was all he had time to say before Sans showed up again, with this one big bottle of monster whiskey.

“Careful, kid.”, the shorter man warned. “That’s strong stuff.”

“You should worry about yourself, shortstack.”

“Bring it on.”, he rasped.

Grillby silently went to the kitchen and brought a jar with water for you two.


	7. No sofas were injured during the making of this fanfic. Maybe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You find a drinking buddy and your family has a surprise for you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In need of a BETA reader. This chapter has not been beta'd and english is only just my second language.

You weren't in any way a lightweight. As early as at the age of 13, your parents introduced you to the taste of their spider cider. You remember vividly how the magical liquor burned the back of your tongue and how you spit it out right away. The second time you were prepared. You had gulped down your cup and winced when you were done. Cheers and celebrations followed.

It's been ten years of tasting and light drinking and sometimes drinking when no one was home, in the company of your cousin. You learnt how to handle your alcohol pretty fast, and managed to never get caught. Usually all you needed was to keep drinking water along side the liquor, so you slowly could build up your resistance. It had worked pretty well for you.

Today was different: as a silent rule you both took upon yourselves, there would be no water and no treats to ease down the drinking. You can't drink more than me!, you could almost hear his silent boasting every time you locked eyes over your cups. Grillby didn't join in your little dispute, but nevertheless had his share. He had a half full cup in front of him, and ate charcoal cubes endlessly.

You were beginning to get tipsy, you knew from the way you slurred your words and how you were now struggling to hold your drink. Sans wasn't any better, pupils dilatated slowly as he seemed to snipe worse jokes by the minute. His quick judgement was shutting down, but not his mouth. Stars, someone make him stop! This is just geting sad.

“You drunk yet?”, you asked him.

“Nope, the name is still Sans.”

And then later:

“Heheh, what's the difference between Grillby and the fireplace? Five shots!”

You grunted.

Refill. Drink. Repeat.

Refill. Drink. Repeat.

Refill. Drink…

“You need to stop.”, Grillby said as he grabbed the half empty bottle between you and the skeleton.

“Hnnn-No.”, you grabbed his wrist with one of your free arms. His skin was sizzling hot.

“Dun loose yer cool, Grilb.”, Sans slurred, half slidding off his chair.

“You have had enough.”, he gently unhooked your lazy finger off him.

“I can – hic – Still 'ave 'nother shot!”, you claimed, standing up on your wobbly legs to take the bottle from his hands. He had a tight grip on it. You went at him with all your arms, trying to pry the whiskey off his hands with all you had.

He put a hand on your shoulder and pushed you back onto your chair, his fiery hand feeling so hot even through your clothes. You wondered if he could actually burn you.

You mumbled incoherently and let your hold loosen up. He took the bottle from you, and corked it up. You tilted your head back to glance at Sans. He was as much of a mess as you, except his stupid grin was way too happy for your taste. You leaned over the table and smacked him on the forehead.

Without leting his smile die the least bit, he motioned his hand and there was blue magic pushing you back onto your chair. People seemed to really want you to sit down, uh?

“Two can play.”, you barked a laugh and weaved your magic spider silk. The dark blue strands loosely wraped around him and his chair, and both your souls jumped out of your bodies. His otherwise pale soul was tinted in dark blue, and you saw your own soul take the same hue.

“Ok, that's enough.”, Grillby broke the battle scene, pushing both of you out of it. “You aren't engaging in a fight in my house.”

“Na fighting, Grillbz.”, Sans pleaded. “Buh she started it.”

Grillby didn't respond, but he shot a stern look at his friend before turning to you.

“Rose, where do you live?”

“None yer bussiness.”, as the words left her mouth, she decided that it had been rude for him to ask.

He moved away to get you your jacket, and you decided you were sleepy and that now would be a perfect time to move to his sofa and catch some “z”s .

You did just that.

You weren't sure what made you wake up, but when you did, your feet were dragging on the ground, Grillby had an arm hooked around your middle and you had two arms over his shoulders. It was night time and there was snowfall, though you weren't feeling cold in the least. Someone had made you put on your jacket, and you had a throbbing headache.

“Grillby?”, you mumbled, voice raspy and rough. You coughed.

He held you up a little better so your feet were properly planted on the ground. Your legs were still weak, and you held onto him for good measure.

“Can you walk?”, he asked. Looking at him this close, his bright flames were hurting your eyes, and you had to look away.

“ ...I guess.”, you tried to stand on our own, but didn't let go of his shoulders. “Where are we?”

“I'm taking you to your house.”

You resumed walking.

“I live at-”

“It's ok.”, he interrupted you. “I know where you live.”

You shot him a suspicious glance.

“Why do you know that?”, you questioned.

“We called Frisk.”

Ah. The one person addicted to her pastries, she rationalized.

“What happened?”

“Nothing much, really.”,

“I feel disgusting. How drunk was I?”

“Very.”

Oh, stars...

“Please, tell me I didn't barf at your house.”

“Ok.”, you expected him to continue talking, but he shut up instead.

“Grillby, for fuck's sake, tell me I didn't barf on anything. I didn't barf on your sofa, did I?.”, you let out a pitiful whine.

“I can't say that.”

Oh. Stars…

Shame crept up your face, followed right after by that blue magic blush.

“I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll pay for the damage-”

“Nothing was damaged.”, he interrupted you. “Don't worry about it.”

For the rest of the walk, neither of you spoke. You tried not to rely on him much to walk, but let him keep hold of you. You counted the cracked bricks on the sidewalk to keep your hazy mind away from your present situation, and could barely wait to get home and hide yourself from everything to whallow in self pity. It would be preferable than this awful awkwardness.

You were relieved to catch sight of your family's bakery. You let go of him to walk the last steps on your own to the front door.

“Thanks for taking me home.”, you refused to look at him.

“Don't mention it.”

The moment you opened the door, many heads turned to look at you. Your whole family was down at the shop, and it seemed like you had arrived just in time for some celebration. Which, by the way, you had no idea would be happening. Did you forget anyone's birthday? Did anyone do anything while you were out?

There were spider limbs everywhere, and it was hard to say who was hugging who in that pile.

“ROSEY!”, your mother pulled you into the group, and you thought you were going to barf again with the sudden movement. You couldn't breath, and there was a strong smell of jam and icing. You were going to be sick.

“Rosey, you'll never guess what happened!”, your little brother shouted.

“W-wait a sec, guys.”, you turned to Grillby, still by the door.

“Thanks, dude, it was nice of you to get me home.”

“Don't worry about it.”, he said.

“Who is that, Rosey?”, Frostbite asked.

“Gotta go now. Uh, do you want anything? I can get you something from the shop.”, you offered.

“There's no need.”, he shruged.

“No, really, I insist. Let me apologise for the sofa. Uh… Mom, do we still have spider tea? Seriously, Grillby, let me get you something warm for the way.”

“I'm a fire monster.”, he raised and eyebrow at you, looking rather amused. “I doubt you can do anything about that.”

You bit back a sassy comeback - this would be so _damn_ inappropiate, even more so considering the trouble you made him go through today, with the whole puking on his sofa thing.

"Rose!", you father called.

"I'm coming!", you shouted back over your shoulder. "Look, Grillbz, 's ok if you don't want it, but, like, thank you. A lot. I'm super sorry for the whole… Sofa thing.", oh, look, the floor is so interesting to look at, specially if the alternative is to look at him. Nope, you'd expontaneously combust in shame.

You could almost hear him smirk when he let out a short laugh. Deep grave voice making the frigid air all that heavier.

"Until next time, Rose.", he said and he left as you waved helplessly.

"Seriously, Rosey?", your sister scoffed and you closed the door. "Of all the times, you choose _now_ to flirt?"

"Not flirting. Trying to be polite."

"For once?."

"Girls, stop.", your father interrupted you before you could continue arguing. "Frost, don't we have something to tell Rosey?", he and your sister shared a knowing look, and you were sure now that you didn't know what was going on.

"Come here, Rosey.", you mother called and you stepped closer to her.

It was weird when she started the lift her shirt - Woah, what? Mom, stop! - and stopped pulling when she uncovered her belly.

You open your mouth to question what were you supposed to be looking at, but closed it. You could feel something strange, a different source of magic coming from within her, that you hadn't noticed before.

No way...

You eyes searched for her soul, and then, further down. You found a spot of strange magic, unlike any of your relatives.

"Oh. Stars, mom...", that seemed to be the reaction she was looking for, because her face lit up like a beacon.

"You're getting a new brother or sister, Rosey.", her voice was so sweet when she said that, not unlike how she used to speak to you when you were a child.

"I'm gonna be a big bro, Rosey!", Spindel jumped to you, and you caught him in a hug.

"Hell yeah, little dude! You gonna be a big bro!" you locked his head under an arm and gave him a noogie.

Celebrating resumes.

You managed to handle your tipsiness the whole time by drinking an insane amount of tea and sitting down by the kitchen table while everyone prepared a special meal for the ocasion. Your mother was spared from working on it - "You sit down or I make you sit down.", you father was never the kind man, but his actions didn't reflect his words. He pulled a chair for your mother and they giggled between stolen kisses in front of you. Those two better get a room soon - and was looking lovingly at her not yet swollen belly.

"We are going to go out to celebrate tomorrow.", she said without looking at you. " Why don't you invite your boyfriend?"

You almost spit your tea.

"Come again?"

"That gentleman that walked you home.", she wiggled her eye brows at you. Oh, for fuck's sake…

"Mom.", you put down your tea. "He is not my boyfriend."

"Do you want him to be your boyfriend?", she teased.

"No!", then you thought some more. "Er… It wouldn't be bad, I guess?", you shook your head. "Nah, he's too old."

"What of it?"

"That would be weird.", you said like it was obvious. Or it should be. "What would we even talk about?"

"I don't know. What did you talk about today?"

"Hnn", you thought about it. "I don't really know. I was drunk."

The look she shot you was downright disappointed.

"Rose!"

"I swear we didn't do anything!", you said as you got all blue up your cheeks. "It was a friendly hangout, mom!"

"Sure.", her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Are you two using protection, at least?"

"Stars! Mom!", you stood up. "I don't need to explain my lack of protection with my not-boyfriend. Call me when dinner is ready.", you retreated into the living room,


End file.
